Comet boys place 5th, Comet girls place 10th at Algona XC Invitational

Press Staff Report

ALGONA — Monday’s Algona Cross Country Invitational was going to be a tough turnaround for the Charles City Comets.

They had just competed in the Sam Iverson Invitational at Grundy Center on Thursday in a meet that featured several state-ranked teams.

And then there was the Homecoming Weekend where both boys and girls squads participated in the festivities, most notably senior Harper McInroy, who was the HC Queen.

Though Heavy Lies the Crown, it didn’t slow McInroy down as she — for the second-straight meet — ran a 5K time under 22 minutes with a new personal-record of 21 minutes, 46 seconds, which placed her just outside the Top 20 in the Girls Varsity Race while leading all Comet girls.

In the latter Boys Varsity Race, the Comets placed fifth out of 14 teams with a team total of 143 points, finishing behind Okoboji (51), Algona (106), Clear Lake (122) and St. Edmond (123).

Charles City’s sophomore returning state qualifiers, Nick Williams and Xander Graeser, respectively placed 11th (17:45) and 13th (17:52) while leading the Comet boys, whose next scoring placers included junior Isaac Thompson (18:27, 23rd), junior Lukas Vance (19:18, 47th) and senior Breyer Ellison (19:41, 54th).

St. Edmond senior Aaron Lursen paced the field (16:50), 10 seconds ahead of runner-up Algona senior Ryan Stundahl.

Charles City’s girls placed 10th with senior Lauren Staudt (23:04, 45th), senior Cloey Usher (23:59, 58th), senior Claire Eckenrod (24:33, 68th) and junior Maggie Boss (24:38, 70th) rounding out the team’s top five.

Clear Lake sophomore Addison Doughan paced the 105-runner girls field with a time of 19:06.

Mason City junior Audra Mulholland was runner-up  (19:38) while helping the Riverhawks win the girls race with 73 team points.