CL harriers claim top spots at B-K Invitational

A positive attitude helped the Clear Lake cross country teams to achieve positive results at the Belmond-Klemme Invitational Tuesday, Sept. 6.

“The story of the day was how well the Clear Lake runners handled the adverse weather conditions,” said Coach Nick DiMarco.  “They had a great attitude about the day and didn’t let the heat and humidity interfere with their goal to run the best race possible.”

The temperature was 86 degrees and the “feel like” temperature was 95 degrees at race time.  Still, Clear Lake’s varsity and junior varsity boys placed first and the varsity and JV girls were second overall.

The varsity Lady Lions had four runners in the top 20.  Gretchen Jones stayed in the top five for the entire race.

“She ran one of the smartest races of her career and it paid off with a third place finish in 21:34,” said Coach DiMarco.

Katelyn Moore also finished in the top 10, fighting off two competitors at the end to record an excellent time of 22:42 for a ninth place finish.  Alena Gabrielson finished 13th in a time of 23:28.

Tali Tesar finished 18th in a time of 24:21.  Tesar was in a group of 15 runners with 200 meters to go and bested them all.  Riley Cooney rounded out the scoring for the Lions with a 24th place finish in 24:40.

“Riley is just recovering from an illness and has potential to do great things this season,” added DiMarco.

Rounding out the varsity Lion team was Bailey Larsen, 26th in 24:49, and Rissa Barragy, 36th in 26:32.

The varsity boys did not disappoint by taking the team title.

Sam Pedelty continues to impress, finishing second in an excellent time of 17:38.  Not far behind was Eric Faught and Ike Branstad.

“Eric and Ike worked together as a team to push up and hold off the competition,” said DiMarco.  Faught finished fifth with a time of 18:04 and Branstad finished eighth in 18:19.

Grant Dieken had his highest placement of the season, finishing 12th in a time of 19:12.  Jacob Peterson rounded out the Lion’s scoring squad in 22nd place with a time of 19:42.  Running his first varsity race of the year, Dylan Schuchard ran a very smart race and finished 29th in 20:08.  Completing the team was