The women's and men's cross country teams competed at the Winterset Invitational on Tuesday.  No official team scores were kept as individuals ran in their grade level.

On the women's side, Paityn Noe and Ava Vance each finished 1st in their grade levels running in times of 19:07 and 20:52.  Freshman Annika Larson finsihed 2nd with a time of 21:44 and Kate Huisinga finished 4th at 21:42 in the senior division.

The men were led by Seth Pencook who finished 8th in the junior division with a time of 18:23.  Junior Trent Payne finished 14th with a time of 19:10.

Comments From Head Coach Scott Barth:

WOMEN:

"The girls' results were a mixed bag for us tonight. Having junior Paityn Noe and sophomore Ava Vance back in the line-up was really nice as they both won their age divisions with times of 19:07 and 20:52. Paityn has been hampered by lower back pain over the last two weeks and has been working her way back into our regular workout schedule and her first meet today. She ran a conservative first mile today and then opened it up as she worked her way through miles two and three.

Senior Kate Huisinga and freshman Annika Larson seemed to run consistent races finishing 4th and 2nd in their age divisions. Sophomore Erica Espinoza and Brynn Wilson appeared to have slight letsdowns from their performances last week at Webster City. Wilson did, however, earn a 6th place medal in the freshman division. Senior Brooke Loewe appears to have had a pretty solid race tonight as she matched her Webster City time exactly while most of the others had times slower.

So, overall, I would say we had some decent performances tonight, but probably not as good of a night as we did last week. I am guessing that the younger runners benefitted from running with our more experienced runners last week as they helped them with pacing and confidence. Gracie Ross, Audrey Zielke, Anya Jorgensen and Lara Jones all outperformed their Webster City performances and had great races!"

MEN:

"On the boys side, after looking over times and comparisons from last week, I think the boys performed really well. Seth Pencook led the Bombers placing 5th in the junior division with a time of 18:23 which is an 11 second improvement. Chase Brekke cut five seconds off his previous time and earned a medal in the senior division placing 6th. Trent Payne cut 19 seconds to finish 2nd on the team for the Bombers and just missed out on a medal in the talented junior position.

Zack Charter earned a 4th place medal in the freshman class with a 43 second improvement over last week. Sophomore Bradley Sage and freshman Logan Huntrods just missed out of medalist positions. 

So, again, I was pleased with the way the boys ran tonight. I am seeing lots of positive attitudes in our varsity boys line-up which is going to pay off for them as we hopefully improve over the course of the season. They are working hard and seem to be having fun doing it. It is great to see and I am proud of them. 

There were no official team scores  kept tonight, but the #2 ranked DCG girls would have gotten the team title tonight with us coming in a fairly close 2nd place. It has been nice running against 2 of the state best teams over the course of the last 2 meets heading into a VERY tough meet next Monday at home. It appears that there will be 6 out of the top 10 girls teams in class 3A in attendance. It will be nice having our entire varsity team intact and competing together against such great competition. Having Paityn as a solid #1 for us will get us to a good start and we will see how our pack can hold together and go for the W. Being pushed will help us grow - we look forward to the challenge.

The boys field will be loaded also with what appears to be 6 of the top 12 boys teams in class 3a in attendance. We may not be quite at the same level as the girls program is right now, but I expect our guys to run well and hopefully surprise some people. No matter what though, I know they are going to race hard and that is what we ask of our teams. 

In both cases - you can be a pretty good team at the Ballard meet and still finish down in the divisional standings. If you get a chance, you should come out and see the 'mini state' meet. We very well could have state championship teams and state championship individuals running on the Ballard course. It will be a fun day of competition."

The Bombers are back in action on Monday, September 13 when they host the Mike Carr Invitational Meet.  The meet will feature the middle school, junior varsity, and varsity and will start at 4:30 PM.

WINTERSET INVITATIONAL TEAM SCORES

NO TEAM SCORES KEPT

WINTERSET INVITATIONAL WOMEN'S INDIVIDUAL TIMES

1st (Junior) Paityn Noe, 19:07

1st (Sophomore) Ava Vance, 20:52

4th (Senior) Kate Huisinga, 21:42

2nd (Freshman) Annika Larson, 21:44

6th (Senior) Brooke Loewe, 22:04

6th (Freshman) Brynn Wilson, 23:14

WINTERSET INVITATIONAL MEN'S INDIVIDUAL TIMES

8th (Junior) Seth Pencook, 18:23

14th (Junior) Trent Payne, 19:10

17th (Senior) Chase Brekke, 19:19

12th (Sophomore) Bradley Sage, 19:52

13th (Freshman) Zack Charter, 19:54

21st (Freshman) Logan Huntrods, 20:52