Eight area harriers lead way at Colo-NESCO

ZEARING — The Class 1A No. 19 Baxter boys’ cross country team went head-to-head with No. 7 Ankeny Christian Academy on Sept. 19. And the Bolts nearly pulled the upset despite not having their No. 3 runner at full strength.

Baxter put three runners in the top five and five in the first 14 positions at Dakins Lake Park and Campground and scored 36 points. Ankeny Christian was the meet champion with 33 points. Colfax-Mingo, led by a top-10 finish from Sullivan Wilkins, placed fourth in the six-team field.

“This is the best we’ve run as an entire team, both boys and girls,” Baxter head cross country coach Dennis Vaughn said.

On the girls’ side, Baxter’s Makayla True and Zoey Gliem finished in the top 10 and the Tigerhawks were third as a team.

Class 1A No. 21 ranked Matt Richardson and Max Handorf led the Baxter boys in second and third place, respectively, in the boys’ 5K race. Richardson was the runner-up in 17 minutes, 40.9 seconds and Handorf took third in 18:15.7.

Brecken Fisher finished fifth in 18:22.2 and the other two scoring runners were Maddox Peters (19:48.9) in 12th and Dakota Parker (20:25.2) in 14th. Logan Rainsbarger (23:44) and Parker Bonney (25:32) were non-scoring runners in 27th and 36th, respectively.

Wilkins was eighth for Colfax-Mingo. He finished in 19:26.2. Owen Ament (21:16.1) and Josue Rodriguez (21:25.3) finished back-to-back in 19th and 20th and Tony Buenrostro (25:12.2) and Ryan Moore (27:31.5) were the final scoring runners in 35th and 40th, respectively.

Nathan Endersbe (27:36) and Asher Knutson (31:19.2) were the non-scoring runners for Colfax-Mingo.

Class 1A No. 11 Alex Davis of Ankeny Christian won the boys’ race in 17:28. The Eagles placed four runners in the top 10 and all seven finished in the top 20.

After Ankeny Christian (33) and Baxter (36) was GMG (82) in third. Colfax-Mingo (108), South Hamilton (111) and Meskwaki Settlement School (144) completed the top five.

South Hamilton won the girls’ meet title with 35 points. North Tama (45) edged Colfax-Mingo (47) for third in the three-team field.

True led the area runners in the girls’ 5K race in second. She was clocked in 22:57.4. Gliem was the only other Baxter runner and she finished seventh in 24:55.9.

Colfax-Mingo placed two in the top 10 and three in the first 15. Ashlynn Hosbond led the Tigerhawks in fourth with a time of 23:37.8. Shae Wilkins (25:06.5) was next in eighth and Mallory Sipma (27:19.8) placed 15th.

The other two scoring runners were Laila Kwaskiewicz (29:38.6) in 24th and Devan Chadwick (33:13.5) in 31st. Ava Van Maaren (34:27.1) was a non-scoring runner in 33rd.

Colo-NESCO’s Elizabeth Erickson won the girls’ race in 22:25.1.