Cross Country: Rams fair well at loaded state qualifying meets
By BRANDON HURLEY
Sports Editor
A challenging field of runners left Greene County’s co-ed squads with an uphill climb at last week’s state qualifying cross country meets.
Each unit placed a bevy of runners inside the top 50, individual, though they struggled to stay with some of the state’s elite runners.
Second-ranked Carlisle edged sixth-ranked North Polk in the Class 3A boys’ meet Oct. 24 in Atlantic which featured seven individually ranked runners while 10th-ranked AC/GC captured the 2A girls’ meet title in Panorama.
The Greene County boys placed 11th out of 13 tallying 308 points thanks to an average time of 20:04.61 while the girls’ also finished 11th out of 13 squads, scoring 237 points with an average time of 25:17.
Senior Ashlee Harmeyer was Greene County’s top performing runner, finishing 31st with a time of 23:36. Fellow senior Kassie Lamoureux placed 43rd with a time of 23:21. Conner Allender rounded out the Rams’ top 3 with a 56th place finish, running to a time of 24:52. Tieryn Tucker, also a senior, was 70th (26:46) while freshman Olivia Shannon wasn’t far behind in 72nd (26:49). Makala Kafer was 73rd (27:06) while Kayla Muir (27:39) rounded out the top seven in 76th.
The meet-winning Chargers were paced by third-ranked Kate Crawford’s individual title (19:47), who edged fifth ranked Ella Waddle of Panorama in addition to AC/GC’s other two other top six runners. The Class 2A field featured four ranked runners, including Treynor’s Tori Castle (11th) as well as AC/GC’s Rylee Sloss (23rd).
Emmetsburg and 15th-ranked Chariton rounded out the top 3.
Carlisle dominated the boys’ 3A meet with a trio of runners inside the top eight while North Polk was paced by three runners in the top 11.
Greene County was paced by sophomore Logan Woodruff, who finished 43rd with a time of 19:14.74 while fellow teammate Luis Velazco slid inside the top 50 with a 49th place finish (19:29).
Dakota Mobley finished 70th (20:27) followed by Ethan Frederick in 71st (20:28) and Ethan Larsen in 75ht (20:44). Anthony Tolsdorf (89th) and Connor Brus (91st) rounded out the Rams’ top seven.
ADM’s Nate Mueller, the top-ranked runner in all of 3A, captured the meet title with a time of 15:57, a fair amount ahead of eighth-ranked Zach Sporra of North Polk (16:42).
Atlantic’s Craig Becker (11th in 3A) and Carlisle’s Kolby Fritz (15th) rounded out the top four.
Greene County head coach Jeff Lamoureux was proud of the Rams’ effort while he feels encouraged for the future. They battled through various injuries throughout the year, but it helped pave the way for improvement.
“I appreciate the effort by our seniors and they will be missed,” the coach said. “The boys will be returning top 10 runners and a good core of girls team will return (next year). I’m excited about the potential for a good season next year.”
The 2019 state cross country meet is this Saturday, Nov. 2 in Fort Dodge.
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