Several area teams competed at Thursday night’s Southeast Iowa Superconference cross country meet at Twin Lakes Golf and Country Club in Winfield. In the girls varsity race the top area finisher was Taylor Hills from Columbus who crossed the finish line with a time of 16:02 good for 11th place and a spot on the all conference team. After the meet Hills talked about the most important part of her run.
“After the first mile I hard my time, and I was like I can’t slow down, I just kept pushing myself to catch one more person,” Hills said.
Other finishers for Columbus included Claire Hamilton in 31st in a time of 17:32, Ashley Canny in 36th place at 17:47. Yvette Aguillar in 38th in 17:58, Rebeca Neri finishing in 52nd place with a time of 18:54, Jessica Morales crossed the finish line in 19:00 for 54th place and Grace Chapman was 58th with a time of 19:23.
The final team results were Pekin winning the meet with 22 points, Mediapolis in second with 85, Wapello third with 103, Lone Tree in fourth with 114, L-M fifth with 127, Columbus sixth with 141, Danville/New London seventh with 156 and Van Buren was eighth with 162.
IMS competed in the girls event as individuals led by Renee Buckwalter’s 21st place finish in a time of 16:50. Other IMS girls finishers were Michaela Gingerich in 60th with a time of 19:52, Katya Doroshenko in 73rd with a time of 22:43 and Nani Qimatshoeva in 75th with a time of 25:51.
On the boys side of the event Columbus finished fifth as a team with 130 points. Wapello was the overall team champion with 82 points. The Wildcats were led by Josh Keller’s sixth place finish in a time of 16:29. Other Columbus finishers included Eli Sents in 11th with a time of 16:41, Efrain Barajas in 14th with a time of 16:48, Anthony Garcia in 45th with a time of 18:16, Adrian Santos in 63rd in 19:01, Tony Ramos was 67th in 19:03 and Dalton Howell was 79th in 19:34.
The best area team finish on the boys side belonged to Highland who took second with a team score of 86 points. They were led by individual conference champion Evan Mahler. Following the race Mahler talked about what it meant to be Southeast Iowa Superconference Champion.
“I’ve done good, but there’s still districts, there is still state, and there are going to be better people then me so I still have to keep on going,” Mahler said.
Other area team scores included Winfield Mt. Union in 8th with 167 points and IMS in 12th with 323 points. Iowa Mennonite was led by Kirby Shetler’s 15th place finish with a time of 16:50. Other IMS finishers included Noah Bruns in 66th at 19:03. Payton Miller was 89th in 20:00, Kobi Russom was 97th in 21:44, Rex Yoder took 101st in 22:16 and Jim Wang was 102nd in 22:44.