The Lady Lynx cross country team turned in a perfect performance on Saturday, and the 15-point perfect tally resulted in the first-place team prize of their home invite. Brandon Valley placed five of their runners in the top eight, shrinking their previous-week gap of runners from 90 seconds to 56 seconds.
“It’s hard to put kids between us when we are that tightly grouped,” head coach Larry Beesley said.
As for the Lynx boys, they, too, had a good day on the McHardy Park course, where freshman Britton Elkin was the first to complete the course. He also set a new BVHS freshman class record, breaking former all-state and ESD champion Nathan Hauge’s mark. As a team, the BV boys placed second behind Sioux Falls Roosevelt.
“Second place to a strong Roosevelt team is a good step for this young team,” Beesley said.
For the second consecutive meet, senior Haylee Waterfall led the Lady Lynx. Her run of 20:43 landed her in second place. Lauren Wells and Kylie Foss paced themselves to fourth and sixth place respectively, behind their 21:08 and 21:17 course runs. Allison Rief and Katie Wentzy clocked in at 21:33 and 21:39 to nab seventh and eighth place.
Beesley was elated with the girls’ effort.
Mikaela Birath (11th, 22:03) and Natalie Moose (18th, 23:25) also garnered medals.
“This pack really looked good and ran very well, especially the back part of the race,” the coach said. “We looked strong when it counted, which led to us taking six of the first 11 places, and our girls are really having a great start to the season and can run tough courses like ours very well.”
Elkin’s 17-minute, 19-second first-place race was aided by Thomas Redford’s fifth-place run of 18:25. Zach Hentschel paced himself to an eighth-place finish (18:52), and Eli Cheever was 10th with his run of 19:11. Rounding out the top 20 were Jace Christoffer (16th, 20:13) and Caleb Klatt (18th, 20:20).
Beesley said he witnessed a competitive edge among the boys this week.
“I like that these guys have not settled into a spot on the team, have not had the same finish order, so the guys are competing, “(but) we had a gap of 2 minutes, 54 seconds this week, up from 2 minutes, 30 seconds between first and fifth last week, so we need to close that up.”
The Lady Lynx JV team was unable to field a full team, and the JV boys landed in third place due to a “big gap in time” between their first and fifth runners, Beesley said. “Just like the varsity boys, the gap needs to close, and it will as this group gains experience.”
Colton Elkin (4th, 19:42) and Quinn Gienap (5th, 19:42) were the top performers for the JV boys.
Both of BV’s middle school programs won their respective team titles, with the boys just missing out on a perfect score by one place. The girls turned in a nice win with seven of their eight running in their first ever cross-country race.
Zoey Mandery won the girl’s 2,200-meter race with a time of 9:40 and Chantel Bickler was second at 9:42. Riley Peyton was the first middle school boy to complete the course. He clocked in at 8:17.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what these girls can do in their upcoming meets and also in the ESD meet,” Beelsey said.
The boy’s middle school team – the program’s largest with 30 members - Beelsey said, shows a great deal of promise. “The gap between this group of five was an amazing 24 seconds.”
The Lynx middle school teams return to the McHardy Park course this Wednesday to host their home invite with races starting at 4:15 p.m. The varsity and JV programs compete Saturday at the Huron Invite, which gets underway at 9 a.m.
LYNX INVITATIONAL
Lady Lynx (5,000 meters, 28 runners): 2.) Haylee Waterfall 20:43; 4.) Lauren Wells 21:08; 6.) Kylie Foss 21:17; 7.) Allison Rief 21:33; 8.) Katie Wentzy 21:39; 11.) Mikaela Birath 22:03; 18.) Natalie Moose 23:25; 23.) Hannah Sprecher 23:42; 24.) Caitlyn Hanson 24:33; 27.) Hannah Hendrick 24:42.
Lynx boys (5,000 meters, 26 runners): 1.) Britton Elkin 17:19; 5.) Thomas Redford 18:25; 8.) Zach Hentschel 18:52; 10.) Eli Cheever 19:11; 16.) Jace Christoffer 20:13; 18.) Caleb Klatt 20:20; 21.) Josef Zahn 20:54; 23.) Dustin Groen 21:05; 25.) Luke Kocer 21:12.
Lady Lynx JV (5,000 meters, 20 runners): 11.) Lexy Hamner 22:20; 17.) Mackenzie Hochhalter 22:38; 20.) Kelsey Frost 22:40.
JV boys’ (5,000 meters, 43 runners): 4.) Colton Elkin 19:42; 5.) Quinn Gienap 19:42; 10.) Blake Thompson 20:14; 22.) Jack Scholten 20:48; 30.) Curtis Callahan 21:18; 31.) Caleb Zerr 21:54; 35.) Brian Wynia 22:36; 37.) Marshall Elkin 22:48; 40.) Grant Gunderson 22:52; 43.) Darrell Terwilliger 22:55.
Lady Lynx Middle School (2,200 meters, 23 runners, top 10): 1.) Zoey Mandery 9:40; 2.) Chantel Bickler 9:42; 4.) Carmen Moeller 10:23; 8.) Elaina Rice 10:32.
Middle School boys (2,200 meters, 54 runners, top 10): 1.) Riley Peyton 8:17; 3.) Cole Borchardt 8:25; 4.) Nathan Kruger 8:29; 5.) Caleb Christenson 8:40; 6.) Jeremiah Donahoe 8:41.
