X-C boys claim team title at Eagle Grove

Clear Lake’s varsity boys cross country team edged Webster City by virtue of the tie-breaker runner and claimed the team title at the Dick Bell Invitational held Tuesday, Oct. 6, at Eagle Grove.

“Our main goal for this meet was to beat Webster City,” explained Coach Tyler Havens.  “While it was very close ending in a tiebreaker, we achieved our goal.”

The Lions and Lynx both finished with 50 points by counting the placements of each team’s first five runners.  The tie-breaker involved the placement of the sixth runners.  For Clear Lake, that was Joe Faber, placing 20th in 19:21.50.  Webster City’s Codey Berg came in two spots later, giving the Lions the win.

Humboldt, which has been winning meets all season, was without its number one ranked runner and as a result finished third behind Clear Lake and Webster City with 60 points.  The remainder of the field included: Clarion-Goldfield-Dows (126), Garner-Hayfield-Ventura (137), Algona (138), Emmetsburg (169) and Estherville-Lincoln Central (181).

Justin Wright paced the Lion team in the win by placing second in 17:22.04.  Leo Tolentino was fifth in 18:11.69 and Jack Crane rounded out the top 10 in 18:40.6.  Christopher Molander was the fourth Lion to cross the finish line.  He was 14th in 18:58.98.  Jaden Wright finished 19th in 19:19.08.  After Faber’s 20th place finish was Andrew Mixdorf. He crossed the finish line in 32nd with a time of 20:06.60.

“I am confident in our ability to achieve our goal of being a top two team at the Conference Championships (Tuesday, Oct. 13),” added Coach Havens. Webster City will still be tough. We will have to be ready to show up and compete. Humboldt is a legit team, but they are certainly not out of our league.

Coach Havens said the main goal for the girls team at Eagle Grove was to close the gap on Webster City from the meet in Algona a week earlier.

“They put 67 points on us in Algona and we were able to close that gap down to just 29 points. We also did that with not being at full strength this week,” he said.

The Lions were led by Jadyn Heesch, who recorded a 21st place finish in 24:58.80.  Emily Roberts was 27th in 25:34.29.  Emily Benitz and Jillian Enke crossed the finish in 31st and 32nd place respectively with times of 25:49.29 and 26: 20.71.  The fifth counting score was provided by Olivia Fausnaugh, who was 39th in 28:01.57.  Haley Jackson and Gretchen Guetzlaff finished in 43rd and 48th with times of 28:32.51 and 30:45.91.

“I am excited to see where we stack up in this conference and then build from there,” said Coach Havens.  “Veterans Memorial Golf Course produced fast times at our home meet earlier this season, so we should see lots of big personal records.”

Junior Varsity

No official times or placements were kept for runners in the junior varsity races at Eagle Grove, however Coach Havens reports the Lions finished second to Humboldt on a tie-breaker. Tanner Reimann and Vladimir Starrett went one-two in the JV boys race.