Baxter boys finish second at South Tama County

TAMA — Led by top-10 finishes from Max Handorf and Matt Richardson, the Class 1A No. 19 Baxter boys cross country team finished second at the South Tama County Cross Country Invitational on Monday.

The Bolts are not at 100 percent right now but still scored 87 points in second. They only trailed 3A No. 12 Grinnell, which won the team title with 37 points.

The Tigers placed all seven varsity runners in the top 15 and four were in the top eight.

“We’re a little sore and fighting a few injuries, but we are going to finish strong,” Baxter head cross country coach Dennis Vaughn said.

The Baxter girls had just two runners again. Makayla True led the way with a top-10 finish.

Handorf, who is ranked No. 28 in the latest 1A rankings, finished ahead of Richardson for the first time this season.

Handorf was fourth in the boys’ 5K race, finishing in 17 minutes, 45 seconds. No. 18 Richardson was ninth in 18:14.

Brecken Fisher returned to the Bolts’ lineup but is still not 100 percent, according to Vaughn. Fisher was 12th in 18:56.

The other two counting scorers were Maddox Peters (19:58) and Dakota Parker (21:38) in 20th and 48th, respectively.

Logan Rainsbarger (23:22) and Parker Bonney (26:34) were non-scoring runners in 63rd and 81st.

Trailing Grinnell (37) and Baxter (87) in the team standings were East Marshall (128), West Marshall (129), South Tama County (135), Grundy Center (150), South Hardin (162), GMG (177), BCLUW (202), Gladbrook-Reinbeck (232) and Meskwaki Settlement School (278).

Colo-NESCO and North Tama were incomplete teams.

Class 2A No. 2 Emerson Vokes of Grundy Center won the boys’ race in 16:31. Class 3A No. 30 Barrett Jesina of South Tama was the runner-up in 17:14.

True led the Baxter girls in seventh. She was clocked in 22:15, while Zoey Gliem placed 18th in 24:51.

Kyliee Zylstra of Grinnell won the girls’ race in 20:12 and 2A No. 22 Grace Storjohann of Grundy Center was the runner-up in 20:42.

Grundy Center won the team title with 33 points. The Spartans put their top five in the first 14 positions.

West Marshall finished second with 46 points. The rest of the four-team field featured BCLUW (52) and North Tama (100). Baxter was one of eight incomplete teams.