Comet senior girls win division at Go-Hawk Cross Country Invite

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

WAVERLY — They weren’t supposed to be here.

At least that was according to schedule early Wednesday morning.

But after a change in plans after an original change in plans, the Charles City Comets found themselves competing at the Waverly-Shell Rock Go-Hawk Cross Country Invitational, Thursday at Wartburg College.

And suddenly, everything was back on schedule as competitiveness goes.

“We told them at yesterday’s practice that we were running in this,” Charles City girls coach Amanda Rahmiller said after her team won the senior girls division, took second in both the freshmen and sophomore girls divisions, and was thisclose from taking the overall girls title as champion Decorah edged the Comets by one point (15-16).

In combined overall girls and boys scores, the Comets placed fifth. Decorah was the overall champs.

The invitational, which runs separate boys and girls races in each of the 9 through 12 grade groups, was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was postponed to Thursday due to an ominous weather forecast.

Due to participate in at the Luther College Invitational on Saturday, Charles City opted out of the Go-Hawk Invite in favor to having to compete in two races within 48 hours.

“But the Decorah area is still recovering from flooding, so they cancelled it,” Rahmiller said. “That’s why we’re back here. The short notice didn’t matter much. We came ready to run.”

Charles City’s McKayla Cole won the senior girls race with a 5K time of 19 minutes, 41 seconds followed by teammates Alysha Bilharz (fourth), Sarah Turpen (fifth) and Bailey Mitchell (sixth).

Whitney Martin won the sophomore girls race helping the Comets take second to Waverly-SR in that division.

“Mariah McKenzie came through down the stretch for us,” Rahmiller said of sophomore race, where the Comets edged Decorah by one point for second place. “She fought for the eighth-place spot and that made the difference.”

Mackenzy Bilharz placed second in the freshman girls race as the Comets edged W-SR for second place by one point with Decorah taking first.

In the junior boys race, Charles City’s Gavin Connell placed 3rd with a time of 18:01.

“It was a bit hot out there and my time was a little down (from last week’s win at the Charles City Invite),” Connell said. “We didn’t know we were running this until yesterday, but coach (Ryan) Rahmiller was able to get us ready.”

Mason Deeter placed seventh in the sophomore boys race for the Comets, who will travel to Cedar Falls on Thursday for an invitational at Birdsall Park.