Run for the Hills

Charles City holds annual XC invite at Wildwood GC

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — If golf is, like Mark Twain claimed, a perfect walk ruined, then maybe a golf course can make a 5K run more interesting.

For the first time, Wildwood Municipal Golf Course was the setting for the Charles City Cross Country Invitational on Thursday (last year’s CC Invite at Wildwood was cancelled due to sweltering conditions). Among the nuances was a dipping homestretch along the course’s hole No. 4 fairway which some runners used strategically to improve their positions when they would sprint down the hill to make passes before using their momentum for the immediate ascension.

Charles City junior Gavin Connell had no complaints with the course … only that he can’t run there more often.

“The one thing I like about it is that it’s new,” Connell said. “Most of the courses we run on have been around for a long time, and they may have a hill you go up here and another hill you go down there … but nothing like this. I love this course.”

Connell paced the boys varsity field with a 5K time of 17 minutes and 12 seconds, which is …

“A course record, I guess,” Connell said after he made his move to pass Crestwood senior Michael Mashek at the mile-and-a-half mark and built his lead from that point on to win in 6 seconds.

“I’d like to come out here to run again if possible before we get ready for state just to see how I’ve progressed from today,” said Connell, who was an individual state qualifier last season.

“Gavin ran a smart race,” Charles City varsity boys coach Ryan Rahmiller said. “I know he was a little nervous about this one. Last year ended on a bad note when he didn’t qualify for state in the 3,200 run (track and field), and this was his first high school race since then.”

The CC coach said he was pleased with team’s overall performance.

“Adam Stewart ran well for us today after battling health issues last year,” Ryan Rahmiller said of his senior, who placed fifth. “And we had two guys (Kaleb Osier and Nick Litterer) drop nearly a minute and a half off their personal-best times. That’s huge.”

The coed invitational, which included runners from Clarksville, Decorah, Nashua-Plainfield, North Butler, Rockford, Riceville, St. Ansgar and South Winn, didn’t tabulate team scores.

The girls varsity race featured what has become a familiar sight — Ellie Friesen and Charles City senior McKayla Cole running in tandem.

For most of the race Cole maintained a half-step on her rival, who transferred from Osage to Crestwood. Down that hilly homestretch, Friesen took the lead and won with a time of 18:41.1 — Cole was second at 18:47.2.

“We were really pleased with McKayla,” Charles City girls varsity coach Amanda Rahmiller said. “She ran a personal-best bettering her school record by 5 seconds.

“That’s the way she wanted to start her senior season.”

Another Charles City girls runner recording a personal-best was Whitney Martin, who took second place to Clarksville’s Kori Wedeking in the freshman-sophomore race.

“Whitney’s going to be in the sub-20s (minutes) very soon,” said Amanda Rahmiller, who was also impressed with freshman Mackenzy Bilharz, who placed sixth in the frosh-soph race.

“She’s the quiet type, so we didn’t know what to expect from her,” Amanda Rahmiller said of Bilharz, whose 5K time (21:30.8) ranks her sixth among Comet all-time leaders. “Now we do, so now we’re going to move her up to the big dogs.”

In addition to varsity and junior varsity races, there were also 2-mile middle school cross country runs.

In the girls middle school race, Charles City eighth-grader Kiki Connell set a school record (breaking her own) with a first-place time of 12:29.4

In the boys middle school race, Awtwone Cooper led Charles City — which placed five of the top six runners — with a dominating first-place time of 11:39.1.

Charles City Comets
Cross Country Invitational

Sept. 1

At Wildwood Municipal Golf Course

Medalist

Middle School Girls (2-mile)

1. Kiki Connell (Charles City) 12:29.4, 2. Fiona Buresh (Decorah), 3. Aubry Eick (Nashua-Plainfield) 13:23.5, 4. Tayrn Sanderman (D) 13:35.3, 5. Rachel Bower (D) 13:39.8, 6. Jalyssa Blazek (South Winn) 13:48.3, 7. Taylor Payton (D) 13:56.4, 8. Maggie Davis (Saint Ansgar) 14:07.3, 9. Jacie Byrne (SW) 14:11.8, 10. Lydia Staudt (CC) 14:12.0, 11. Brielle Buresh (D) 14:15.4, 12. Kayley Taylor (SW) 14:27.9, 13. Ella Brown (SA) 14:42.9, 14. Josie Weber (SW) 14:52.9, 15. Cambree Kruse (SW) 14:58.6.

Middle School Boys (2-Mile)

1. Antwone Cooper (CC) 11:39.1, 2. Jacob Vais (CC) 11:54.1, 3. Zach Graeser (CC) 12:08.6, 4. Austin Connerly (CC) 12:15.2, 5. Arlo Hays (D) 12:15.6, 6. Cameron Kakac (CC) 12:46.0, 7. Michael Hanson (North Butler) 12:51.2, 8. David Olson (D) 12:52.6, 9. Tate Schissel (D) 12:54.6, 10. Drew Wilken (NP) 12:57.3, 11. Noah Lovelace (D) 12:57.3, 12. Drew White (D) 12:57.5, 13. Bennett Schutte (D) 13:06, 14. Aaron Jensen (CC) 13:10.9, 15. Connor McCann (CC) 13:12.6.

9-10 Girls (5K)

1. Kori Wedeking (Clarksville) 20:15.5, 2. Whitney Martin (CC) 20:20,4, 3. Hope Dohlman (Crestwood) 20:33.7, 4. Addy Carlson (SA) 21:16.2, 5. Mackenzy Bilharz (CC) 21:30.8, 6. Olivia Massman (SW) 21:54.4, 7. Faith Carpenter (NP) 22:16.0, 8. Mattie Slaven (Cr) 22:21.5, 9. Jenna Knutson (SW) 22:33.6, 10. Mariah McKenzie (CC) 22:38.0, 11. Sara Mashek (Cr) 22:43.8, 12. Ashley Kriener (SW) 22:45.8, 13. Sami Bohr (SW) 22:58.8, 14. Bailye Meyers (Cl) 22:59.2, 15. Rachel Steffen (Cr) 22:59.5, 16. Melissa Ward (SW) 23:07.1, 17. Makenna Schmiedel (CC) 23:30.1, 18. Ingrid Hernandez (CC) 23:54.5, 19. Libby Labosky (Cr) 24:05.8, 20. Janet Borchardt (Cl) 24:06.

9-10 Boys (5K)

1. Nathan Marinek (Cr) 18:06.4, 2. Mason Deeter (CC) 18:18.9, 3. Paul Hageman (SW) 18:42.3, 4. Nick Litterer (CC) 18:51.0, 5. Kaden Anderlink (Cr) 19:18.7, 6. Tate Menne (NB) 19:26.2, 7. Seth Hershey (SA) 19:26.5, 8. Levi Lubben (NB) 19:44.0, 9. Blake Murphy (Cr) 19:46.9, 10. Bryden Juelsgaard (Cr) 19;54.3, 11. Lucaa McGee (Cr) 19:57.5, 12. Emmet Schwartzhoff (SW) 19:58.6, 13. Isaak Jensen (CC) 20:21.6, 14. Hayden Pleggenkuhle (CC) 20:22.2, 15. Ryan Wagner (SA) 20:23.4, 16. Eric Brehmer (NB) 20:24.6, 17. Isaac Franzen (SW) 2:27.3, 18, Harry Kitchen (Cr) 20:28.1, 19. Jacob Stokes (Rockford) 20:30.0, 20. Thomas Anderson (NB) 20:31.5.

Varsity Girls (5K)

1. Ellie Friesen (Cr) 18:41.1, 2. McKayla Cole (CC) 18:47.2, 3. Felicity Taylor (SW) 19:40.9, 4. Josie Kriener (SW) 19:44.0, 5. Sheridan LaCoste (RRMR) 20:33.8, 6. Bailey Mitchell (CC) 21:00.0, 7. Sarah Turpen (CC) 21:32.0, 8. Shelbie Reicks (SW) 21:35.2, 9. Alysha Bilharz (CC) 21:47.2, 10. Sadie Nymeyer (SW) 22:03.6, 11. Katie Hirv (RRMR) 22:08.9, 12. Emily Friesen (Cr) 22:28.3, 13. Caitlyn Juhl (SA) 22:34.1, 14. Gillian King (CC) 23:05.8, 15. Sami Bigalk (Cr) 23:14.2, 16. Kennedi Rowlands (CC) 23:28.1, 17. Tiffany Myer (CC) 23:43.34 18, Olivia Harden (RRMR) 24:23.5, 19. Madison Fitzgerald (Cr) 24:33.1, 20. Hannah Chambers (NP) 24:33.4.

Varsity Boys (5K)

1. Gavin Connell (CC) 17:12.6, 2. Michael Mashek (Cr) 17:19.0, 3. Derke Dietzenbach (SW) 17:37.2, 4. Adam Stewart (CC) 17:59.0, 5. Brock Dietz (NP) 18:10, 6. Jordan Snyder (SW) 18:12.2, 7. Paxten Devilbiss (SW) 18:23.9, 8. Eric Franzen (SW) 18:40.4, 9. Dylan Johnson (Cr) 18:48.4, 10. Austin Tieskoetter (SW) 18:58.2, 11. Ryan Steffen (Cr) 19:12.1, 12. Joey Labosky (Cr) 19:14.6, 13. Luke Delap (CC) 19:31.8, 14. John Perez (CC) 19:46.5, 15. Dylan Clipperton (NB) 19:52.5, 16. Andrew Longcor (RRMR) 19:57.3, 17. Caleb Lines (NP) 20:04.3, 18. Brett Marshall (NB) 20:18.8, 19. Bryan Schmidt (SA) 20:47.3, 20. Chance Throndson (Ri) 20:51.1.