The Ballard men's cross country team continued to show improvement this season, racing to a runner-up finish at the Winterset Invitational on Tuesday night. The Bombers, ranked No. 19 in Class 3A, scored 63 points—finishing behind only Class 3A No. 5 Bondurant-Farrar, who won the meet with 41 points.

Ballard placed three runners inside the top 10 and packed its scoring five tightly to secure the second-place finish. Junior Max Davidson once again led the Bombers, finishing runner-up in 17:11.92. Sophomore Graden Hermann earned seventh in 17:40.15, while senior Austin Vance crossed in 10th place at 17:56.04.

Rounding out Ballard's scoring were junior Parker Domino (16th, 18:15.92) and freshman Owen Davidson (28th, 19:21.59). The Bombers also received strong support from Isaac Swisher (36th, 20:24.06) and Evan Newman (45th, 21:47.65).

Head Coach Scott Barth was pleased with his team's showing against another highly ranked Class 3A program:

The boys also had their hands full with some quality competition but ran really well at Winterset. The No. 5 Bondurant-Farrar boys showed why they're ranked in the top five with a very balanced performance in taking the win. We showed up and proved our state ranking by beating two quality 3A teams in Winterset and Creston as well as knocking off two ranked teams from the classes below. We were led by a trio of top-10 finishes from Max, Graden, and Austin, which kept us toe to toe with the No. 5 team."

Barth also highlighted the continued development of the Bombers' depth:

Parker continued to show improvement and competed hard for us, and Owen closed out our scoring with a surging race. Isaac and Evan also ran solid races in our varsity lineup. Overall, we have a really motivated group this season. We've developed a very solid top four and will continue to look for that No. 5 scorer to close out our scoring. Luckily we have several athletes who can rise to the occasion and are willing to put in the work to get there."

Barth noted that the team's JV lineup is also showing promise.

We had several great performances in our JV race, including Jude Jones, who placed sixth and ran well enough to claim a varsity spot for our home meet on Monday."

The Bombers will be back on the course when they host the Mike Carr Invitational on Monday, September 15 at 4:30 PM.