Comet girls win inaugural Mohawk XC Invitational

Staff Report

MASON CITY — The Charles City Comets swept the top-3 places in the varsity women’s race while winning the inaugural Mason City Mohawk Invitational, Tuesday at North Iowa Area Community College.

Freshman Kiki Connell won her first varsity race with a 5K time of 20 minutes, 38 seconds while finishing less than a second ahead of junior teammate Whitney Martin (20:39).

Sophomore Mackenzy Bilharz placed third (21:41).

The most notable performance of the evening went to Mackenzy Bilharz,” Charles City girls head coach Amanda Rahmiller said. “We talked before the race about her goals for the meet, and I told her given the competition, to not be surprised if she found herself in or around third.”

Other scoring runners for CC were Gillian King (9th 22:48) and Ingrid Hernandez (17th 23:24), which gave the Comets 32 points — 6 points better (or less) than runner-up Mason City.

Mariah McKenzie and Adison Olson also finished in the Top 20 for the Comets.

In the boys varsity race, Comet junior Mason Deeter finished a career varsity-best with a 3rd-place time of 17:49.

“Mason Deeter had an outstanding race, really putting it on the line,” Charles City boys head coach Ryan Rahmiller said. “Mason is such a passionate runner, it’s really going to be fun to watch him as enter the final stretches of the season.”

Comet senior Gavin Connell placed fifth with a time of 17:56 one place ahead of teammate Nick Litterer (18:12).

Antwone Cooper placed 12th (19:08) and Hayden Pleggenkuhle finished 21st (19:44) to close out the scoring for the Comets, who placed third behind runner-up hosts Mason City and champion Waverly-Shell Rock, which was paced by one-two, bang-bang finishers Sam Kepford (17:39) and Eamonn McCullough (17:40).

Charles City also won the women’s junior varsity race while being led by respective 3rd, 4th and 5th-place finishers Libbie McKeag, Selah Opp and Mindi Neve.

In the middle school women’s race, Lydia Staudt’s first-place two-mile time of 14:07 helped the Comets win as a team.

Charles City also won the middle school men’s race with Jacob Vais leading the way with a first-place time of 12:11 while besting the nearest competitor by more than 30 seconds.