GHV boys take boys third at Humboldt X-C Meet; girls led by Gonzalez

The Garner-Hayfield-Ventura cross country team proved that practice is paying off when they competed at Humboldt on Monday, Sept. 21.  The boys took third place behind two big, strong schools.  Fort Dodge won the meet with 69 points, followed by Mason City with 89.  GHV had 95 points.  There were 18 total teams running in the meet.  The girls placed 10th in the 18-team field.  Pocahontas won the meet with 52 points, followed by Humboldt with 53.  The Cardinals ended with 249 points.

“I think both the boys and girls ran very well on a very difficult course,” said Coach Jeff Short.  “Our times are reflecting that our practices are improving our runners.”

Both Ezra Marroquin and Morgan Graham ran personal best times at the meet.

Freshman Reece Smith led the boys team with a fifth place finish in 17:43.  Derek Brown was 10th in 18:08 and Logan Dalbeck placed 13th with a time of 18:20.  Also running for the varsity was Austin Siegrist, 30th, 19:03; Ezra Marroquin, 39th, 19:22; Andrew Schreur, 76th, 20:37; and Mason Wirtz, 87th, 21:06.

Maria Gonzalez led the girls team, finishing 19th with a time of 22:25.  Rebekah Larson was 48th with a time of 24:52 and Morgan Graham was 58th with a time of 25:14.  Also running varsity was Kaylee Hudspeth, 60th, 25:23; Nicole Upmeyer, 72nd, 26:13; Hannah Wellik, 79th, 26:40 and Emma Whelan, 89th, 27:16.