Five Lynx medal at Huron

A trio of Lady Lynx and a pair of Brandon Valley boys garnered medals at Saturday’s Huron Invitational. The threesome of Haylee Waterfall, Lauren Wells and Katie Wentzy guided the BV girls to a second-place team finish, while Eli Cheever and Britton Elkin paced the Lynx boys to a fifth-place team ranking.

“The teams looked very good, a lot of solid and medal-winning performances against 13 of the 17 AA schools and some very good A schools,” head coach Larry Beesley said. 

The girls senior leader, Waterfall, once again led the BV girls with her third-place school-record run of 19:17. Wells was just a few steps behind, crossing the line in 19:52 for eighth place. Wentzy and Allison Rief were 20th and 21st, respectively, with their times of 20:17 and 20:20. Kylie Foss’ 25th place run of 20:27 completed the team tally.

“Our one through five gap was at 70 seconds, which is very good. It’s hard to put kids between us when we are that tightly grouped,” Beesley said. “We had a nice pack of girls at 20-25. If this pack moves up a few spots in the ESD meet, we are very strong.

Amidst eight of the nine ESD schools, Elkin and Cheever paced their way into the top 20 in what Beesley describes as “a very togh boy’s race.” Elkin’s effort of 16:59 and Cheever’s run of 17:22 landed them in eighth and 14th place, respectively. Elkin set a BV  freshman class record, breaking former All-Stater Ben Schultz’s mark.

“This gives us a good indication of where these two guys and where we stand in the Metro and ESD meets, the coach said.

Rounding out the team score were Zach Hentschel (40th, 18:11), Thomas Redford (46th, 18:23) and Jace Christoffer (63rd, 18:55).

“Our one through five gap was under two minutes for the first time this season, so the improvement is happening Many had their fastest times of the year or of all time, so I like the path this team is taking,” Beesley said.

Caitlyn Hanson set a BV eighth-grade record with her sixth-place run of 17:15 in the girls’ JV race. Colter Elkin grabbed a medal in the boys’ JV race with his 10th-place run of 14:50.

“This group improves each week and continues to run better times. Our gap in time between our first and fifth guy was under two minutes for the first time this season. so this time grop is improving,” Beesley said.

This Thursday, the Lynx JV programs travel to Brookings to compete in the Russ Strande Invitational at 4 p.m., and on Friday the varsity teams head to Rapid City to run the Rapid City Invitational.