The women and men's cross country teams kicked off the '21 season at the Lynx Invitational in Webster City.  The women scored 53 points to finish second behind North Polk who finished with 37 team points.  St. Edmond finished third with 113 team points.

Kate Huisinga led the Bombers finishing 5th overall in a time of 21:13.  Freshman Annika Larson finished right behind Huisinga in 6th place with a time of 21:15.  Erica Espinoza, Brynn Wilson, and Brooke Loewe went 13th, 14th, 15th and Ava Richardson finished 21st.  Meg Rietz rounded out the Bomber's line-up finishing 27th running in a time of 22:53.

The men finished seventh overall with 207 team points.  Seth Pencook led Ballard finishing 22nd in a time of 18:34.  Senior Chase Brekke ran in a time of 19:24 and finished 36th.  Bradley Sage and Trent Payne finished 38th and 40th overall.  Logan Huntrods (71st), Zack Charter (74th), and Alex Hilleman (101st) rounded out the Bomber's line-up.  North Polk won the meet finishing with 33 team points.

Comments From Head Coach Scott Barth:

WOMEN:

"It was nice getting back on the course for the first time this season.  We were running without two integral runners on our squad as we were resting Paityn Noe who is recovering from a tight lower back and Ava Vance who had family obligations.  Both should be back for our next meet at Winterset next week.

We were led on the course by Senior Kate Huisinga and Freshman Annika Larson who placed 5th and 6th respectively in medalist positions.  They were followed by our second pack of Sophomore Erica Espinoza who made her varsity debut, Freshman Brynn Wilson and Senior Brooke Loewe who closed out our scoring in 13th, 14th and 15th places.  Our final varsity runners were Freshman Ava Richardson who debuted in her first year of cross country in 21st place and Senior Meg Rietz who placed a very good 27th in the field of 85 total runners. 

Our young runners really stepped up and did an amazing job of filling in for our top two runners in Paityn and Ava.  Sophomore Erica Espinoza has really grown by leaps and bounds over the course of the last year.  Her season best time last season was a 26:36 and she ran a 21:58 tonight.  That is amazing and can be attributed to her year round running efforts in track, over summer practices and now again this fall.  She is very coachable and works exceedingly hard.  Also impressive were our freshmen.  Annika Larson made her season debut as the #2 runner on our team.  Brynn Wilson followed up in her debut as the #4 runner and Ava Richardson checked in at #6.  I also need to note the solid performance by freshman Raegan Loewe with her 3rd place JV finish. 

So, overall I am very pleased with our performance tonight.  Give North Polk credit.  They are a very good team and pushed us all night with some aggressive running.  I think that they are definitely a top 10 team and more than likely top 5.  We learned a lot by them being there and will switch our training now that we have had a few weeks to build a base.  We will see them a few more times over the season and their team will push us to be better.  We appreciate the competition."

MEN:

"The boys gave an admirable performance tonight on a very tough course.  We probably got out a bit too quickly which more than likely affected our final times, but looking those times over, we did a solid job.  Junior Seth Pencook was the first finisher across the line for the Bombers placing 22nd.  Next, came a tight pack of Senior Chase Brekke, Sophomore Bradley Sage and Junior Trent Payne placing 36th, 38th and 40th overall.  Next, were two freshmen Logan Huntrods and Zack Charter who ran good opening meet times placing 71st and 72nd place overall.  Senior Alex Hilleman was the final varsity runner for the Bombers through the finish line taking 101st place out of a total of 113 total athletes.  Sophomore Kale ZImmerman also ran a gutsy race coming off from shin splints earning a varsity spot in the next meet.

As I said above, I think we ran a good race, but we definitely have some things to fine tune.  Our start was too fast for our training which affected us in the middle and end of our races.  We can fix that easily enough.  For our boys to be successful, we need to continue to practice running as a tight pack and developing our runners, especially in the 5-7 spots.  Most of our returning runners ran times similar to their mid-season times from last season.  This is even more encouraging knowing that this was a very hilly course and tough to run.  So, I feel pretty good about the returning veterans performance. Looking at our freshmen who finished in the 5th and 6th positions, I am also encouraged by their debut runs. They both cut well over a minute plus off of their time trial times from earlier in the training season. They do have potential as the season goes along. That being said, we did take a big hit when our top returner Austin Shoen was sidelined for the season with an injury that required surgery last week. So, to replace him is a tall order, but I am encouraged by what I saw tonight. The guys gave great efforts and gutted out a tough race - they didn't quit which was good to see. 

Overall both teams ran well tonight, but we have a ways to go to be where we want to be. We have had a few weeks of solid base building under our belts, but now we need to transition to our next phase in training which will lead us into mid-season in mid-September. Lots of hard training to be done, but we look forward to showing growth."

The Bombers are back in action on Tuesday, September 7 when they compete at the Winterset Invitational.  The meet will feature the middle school, junior varsity, and varsity and will start at 4:30 PM.

LYNX INVITATIONAL WOMEN'S TEAM SCORES

1. North Polk, 37

2. Ballard, 53

3. St. Edmond, 113

4. Roland-Story, 115

5. Algona, 156

6. Humboldt, 160

7. Manson NW Webster, 175

8. South Hamilton, 183

9. Boone, 220

10. Webster City, 254

11. Fort Dodge, 300

12. SE Valley, 347

Belmond-Klemme, NTS

Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, NTS

Eagle Grove, NTS

Hampton-Dumont-CAL, NTS

LYNX INVITATIONAL WOMEN'S INDIVIDUAL TIMES

5 Kate Huisinga, 21:13

6 Annika Larson, 21:15

13 Erica Espinoza, 21:58

14 Brynn Wilson, 22:02

15 Brooke Loewe, 22:04

21 Ava Richardson, 22:33

27 Meg Rietz, 22:53

LYNX INVITATIONAL MEN'S TEAM SCORES

1. North Polk, 33

2. Waverly-Shell Rock, 62

3. St. Edmond, 141

4. Algona, 163

5. Humboldt, 181

6. Hampton-Dumont-CAL, 192

7. Ballard, 207

8. SE Valley, 216

9. Manson NW Webster, 252

10. Boone, 259

11. Fort Dodge, 259

12. Roland-Story, 273

13. Webster City, 312

14. Eagle Grove, 324

15. South Hamilton, 334

16. Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, 397

Belmond-Klemme, NTS

LYNX INVITATIONAL MEN'S INDIVIDUAL TIMES

22 Seth Pencook, 18:34

36 Chase Brekke, 19:24

38 Bradley Sage, 19:27

40 Trent Payne, 19:29

71 Logan Huntrods, 20:37

74 Zack Charter, 20:37

101 Alex Hilleman, 23:04