Noe Individual Champion; Bombers Compete At RRC Meet

Women Finish Fourth - Men Finish Eighth

October 13, 2021

The women's and men's cross country teams competed at the Raccoon River Conference Meet hosted by Boone at Cedar Pointe Golf Course on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon.

On the women's side, the Bombers finished fourth overall with 77 points. Paityn Noe was the individual champion for the second year in a row finishing at 18:25. Ava Vance finished fifth with a time of 19:32.4. Annika Larson placed 18th and Kate Huisgina finished 19th. Ava Richardson (34th), Brooke Loewe (36th), and Erica Espinoza (40th) rounded out the Bomber's scoring. North Polk won the meet with 51 team points breaking the Bomber's run of consecutive RRC Conference Meet titles at six.

on the men's side, the Bombers finished 8th with 197 team points. The Bombers were led by Seth Pencook who placed 16th running in a time of 17:21. Bradley Sage finished 38th and Trent Payne 45th. Zack Charter (46th), Logan Huntrods (52nd), Chase Brekke (54th), and Kale Zimmerman (55th) finished closely together.

Comments From Head Coach Scott Barth:

"Needless to say, this was a disappointing night for us at the conference meet tonight. We, for the most part, did not show up for the meet in the correct state of mind and that showed on the course. We are part of a highly competitive conference and when you don't perform well, you will not place well.

I was quite impressed with our top two runners tonight. Paityn Noe repeated as conference champion in a commanding way running away from the field with a season best time of 18:25. Ava Vance was part of a tight pack of runners and finished with another career personal record of 19:32, which moved her into the Ballard All-Time Top 5 times. That had us in a great position, but from there we struggled tonight. Annika Larson and Kate Huisinga finished in the 18th and 19th positions with times of 20:47 and 20:53. Ava Richardson ran well moving into our top 5 for the first time this season with a season best time of 21:53 good enough for 24th place. Brooke Loewe finished next with a time of 21:56 and Erica Espinoza closed out our varsity with a time of 22:28.

Raegan Loewe, Gracie Ross, Audrey Zielke and Anya Jorgensen all ran well in the junior varsity race and ran races well below their season best times. They have all been making great strides and working hard. I am so happy to see them running well and seeing hard work pay off.

The boys had some high points tonight, but that could not overcome a subpar night on the course by the Bomber boys. Seth Pencook ran a career personal record for the second meet in a row. He did not break the 18:00 minute last season and has now been under that mark twice in a row finishing in 16th place tonight with a time of 17:21. Bradley Sage ran a good race also in cutting almost 30 seconds off from his previous season best time finishing in our 2nd spot. Trent Payne ran a subpar race finishing in a time of 19:16. Zack Charter ran well, cutting another 17 seconds off his season best time. Logan Huntrods ran his season best time by 32 seconds finishing with a season best time of 19:50. Chase Brekke really struggled tonight finishing in a time of 22:35 and Kale Zimmerman rounded out our varsity with a tie of 22:55.

Ian Godbold, Braden Kubichek, Micah Ott, Jozeph Hansen and Titan Anderson all ran well tonight and had their season personal records. So there were also some bright points on the junior varsity team.

I could see the disappointment on the faces of many of our experienced runners tonight. We expected better, they expected better and we will not dwell on that for too long. We know through what we have been seeing in our most recent meets and in our key practices that this was just not our night. We will work on getting back on track starting tomorrow. Good teams are resilient and know how to bounce back. I am confident that we will. We don't have quitters on these teams. A season is not made in one meet.

This is an extremely tough league and I am not taking anything away from the teams that beat us tonight, they are all good and competed well. They deserve a lot of credit for running solid races. We will make sure we are better prepared mentally for a bounce-back next Wednesday at the state qualifier in Pella."

The Bombers are back in action on Wednesday, October 20 when they travel to Pella for the State Qualifying Meet. The meet will start at 4:00 PM.

RACCOON RIVER CONFERENCE MEET WOMEN'S TEAM SCORES

1. #10 North Polk, 51

2. #7 Gilbert, 64

3. #8 Carlisle, 71

4. #3 Ballard, 77

5. ADM, 113

6. Winterset, 120

7. Bondurant-Farrar, 202

8. Boone, 239

RACCOON RIVER CONFERENCE MEET WOMEN'S INDIVIDUAL TIMES

1 Paityn Noe, 18:25