Bombers Finish 4th At ADM Invite

Ballard Scores 107 Team Points

September 22, 2020

The men's cross country team finished 4th at the ADM Invite on Monday. Austin Shoen paced the Bombers placing 14th with a time of 18:45.6. Gage Long finished second for the Bombers placing 16th running in a ime of 18:51.6. Jack Chism finished 23rd (19:55.1) and Seth Pencook finished 26th (20:16.1).

Comments From Head Coach Scott Barth:

"The varsity boys did a tough double race combo with only 1 days rest inbetween. They ran in Pella on Saturday and came back today at ADM. So, we probably weren't running on our freshest legs, but we did a great job with our best performance of the season. Austin Shoen finished 14th in varsity competition in a time of 18:45 and he was followed closely by Gage long in 16th place in a time of 18:51. This makes them 3 for 3 in meets under the 19 minute mark this season. Jack Chism struggled somewhat but still finished in 23rd place with a time of 19:55. Seth Pencook ran 26th place with a time of 20:18 and he was closely followed by Chase Brekke who ran a good time of 20:19 which was good enough for 28th place to round out our scorers on the night. Wyatt Borg made his varsity debut with a time of 20:52 good for 32nd place in a gutsy effort. Alex Wiech closed out our varsity line-up with a time of 23:16. Our scorers managed to run in a tighter pack than in our first 2 meets which allowed us to get our highest place of the season placing 4th out of 10 teams at the meet. The 3 teams in front of us are solid teams in a highly ranked in 3A North Polk team, another quality 3A team in ADM with one of the top runners in the state and a ranked 2A team in DM Christian. So, we maximized our position in the meet and took another step forward today.

We also had several good performances coming out of JV. Trent Payne made his season debut coming off of injury to earn a varsity spot for our next meet. Ian and Trent went back and forth most of the race before Trent pulled away. Ian had been practicing sparingly with really tight legs, but he felt much better tonight. Getting a few solid weeks of practices under their belts will hopefully push them into a strong finish of the season Freshman Owen Greco and Kale Zimmerman are learning what high school cross country is all about and showing promise. Like Trent and Ian, getting them some more practices and meet experience will work wonders on their times.

We need to continue focusing on getting our pack closer and tighter with our top 3. Gage, Jack and Austin are showing improvement each meet and becoming more and more focused and competitive in the front. Now we need to get additional runners to step up and challenge themselves. We will be a good team once that gap is minimized. We have the runners to do that, we just need the time to get there."

The Bombers are back in action on Tuesday, September 29 when they compete at the Knoxville Invitational. The meet will feature the junior varsity and varsity and will start at 4:15 PM.

ADM INVITATIONAL TEAM SCORES

1. North Polk, 33

2. ADM, 50

3. Des Moines Chrisitian, 52

4. Ballard, 107

5. Van Meter, 174

6. I-35, 186

7. Saydel, 224

8. Woodward-Granger, 227

9. West Central Valley, 233

10. Perry, 244

ADM INVITATIONAL INDIVIDUAL TIMES