Martin nips Comet teammate Connell at the line to win Early-Bird Invite

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Believe Whitney Martin when she says, “I just love running with her.”

Martin, a returning junior from Charles City’s Class 3A third-place state-finishing cross country team, is referring to Comet newcomer Kiki Connell. The two were inseparable throughout the women’s race at the Charles City Early-Bird Invitational, Thursday at Wildwood Golf Course.

Though they ran side-by-side until the end, there was only one room for first place, and Martin was able to best Connell by thisclose to win the 5K race with a time of 20 minutes, 33 seconds.

“She’s like my big sister,” said Connell, who was clocked with the same time.

“I hope all our races are like this,” Martin said.

There’s a good chance they will be. While at Charles City Middle School, Martin broke a long-standing cross country school record only to have Connell come around and break it several years later.

The Early-Bird Invite served as the season-opener for both the Comet boys and girls teams. Though no team score was officially kept, Charles City’s girls — with Mackenzy Bilharz (5th), Gillian King (10th) and Mariah McKenzy (11th) — would have recorded 29 team points, well ahead of Denver (49), Waverly Shell-Rock (63) and Dike-New Hartford (98).

The top five placers in each race received medals — Denver’s Caroline Stokes and Grace Beck were the other girl medalists with respective third- and fourth-place finishes.

In the subsequent boys race, Comet three-time state-qualifier Gavin Connell placed second with a time of 17:25 to Waverly-Shell Rock winner Eamonn McCullough (17:03).

“I didn’t run as well as I could, but this is the first meet of the season,” Connell said.

Comet junior Mason Deeter medaled with a fourth-place finish (18:07). Waverly-Shell Rock’s Sam Kepford (3rd, 18:08) and Noah Campbell (5th, 18:37) were the other medalists.

Nick Litterer placed sixth (18:08), Hayden Pleggenkuhle placed 15th (19:14) and Phillip Bachman placed 20th (19:35) to round out the would-be team placers for Charles City.

Next week (Aug. 31) at Wildwood, Charles City will host the Trent Smith Invitational that will feature Logan Luft Memorial Runs (middle school) and TJ Houdek Memorial Runs (high school).

Tragic automobile accidents took the lives of former Comet runners Smith and Houdek last summer; Luft, who would have been a freshman at Charles City this school year, died in an ATV accident during this past Fourth of July.

“We’ve had so many people come out for cross country for the first time this year in honor of those guys,” Connell said. “It’s really inspiring.”