Highland senior Keiffer Sexton leads the pack up the first hill of the IMS Early Bird Invitational on Tuesday evening. Sexton finished in fourth place, clocking a time of 17:43.55. Photo by KCII’s Nate Gonner.

Nearly 400 runners were on the course Tuesday night participating in the early bird meet on the campus of Iowa Mennonite School. Several area KCII teams were in attendance. On the boys side of the event, the team champion was Iowa City, City High with an overall score of 29 points. The top KCII area team was Highland who took fifth in the 10 team field with their score of 163 points. The Huskies top finisher was Keiffer Sexton, who finished fourth overall in a time of 17:43.55. Other Highland finishers included Caleb Brase in 15th, Josh Brand was 47th, Jared Gringer in 53rd, Nic Rath took 60th, James McPherson was 65th, and Garret Colbert was 69th.

The Winfield Mt. Union Wolves finished in seventh place as a team with their score of 185 points. Top finisher for the WMU boys was Gavin Bencze taking 12th with a time of 18:23.33. Other Winfield-Mt. Union runners included Johnathon Quinn in 14th place, Kohlton Heinzel in 51st, Nick Davis finishing 55th, Kane Harris taking 71st, Ross Vantiger in 75th and Jackson Brown finishing 76th.

WACO did not have enough runners to qualify for a team score on the boys side. The Warriors were led by John Skriver with his 57th place finish in 22:53.38. Other WACO finishers included Joe Edeker in 61st place, and Roman Kiefer in 80th.

Keota also did not post a team score. The top finisher for the Eagles was Logan Sieren in 18th place with a time of 19:01.69. Other finishers for Keota included Turner Klein in 31st, and Jason Ree 58th.

Lone Tree also did not post a team score. Top finisher for the Lions was Jake Viner in 38th place with a time of 20:39.87. Jeff Hudson finished in 72nd place for Lone Tree.
Iowa Mennonite School also did not post a team score. Top finisher for IMS was sophomore Levi Geyer who took 25th in 19:27.77. Other finishers for Iowa Mennonite included Jacob Boller in 63rd, Micah Miller taking 77th and Jim Wang in 79th.

On the girls side of the event Muscatine took home the team championship with their score of 20 points. The Top KCII area team finish came from Lone Tree who took fifth out of seven teams with their score of 137 points. Top finisher for the Lady Lions was Paige Doehrmann in 22nd with a time of 24:26.82. Other Lone Tree finishers included Sydney Alt in 30th, Devyn Alt in 33rd, Chloe Jacque in 35th and Lexi Flake in 43rd.

Highland did not have enough runners to qualify for a team score. The Huskies were led by sophomore Zoe Mahler who took 41st with a time of 27:49.09. Cheyann Adamson was 48th for the Huskies.

Winfield-Mt. Union did not have enough runners to qualify for a team score. The Wolves were led by Cecelia Hemsworth and her 29th place finish in 25:49.51. Other finishers for WMU included Whitney Vantiger in 46th, Kimberlee Warnstaff in 50th and Isabella Mertens taking 52nd.

WACO did not have enough runners to qualify for a team score at the event. The Warriors were led by senior Cheyenne Sedlacek who placed 25th with a time of 25:23.38. Other WACO finishers included Michaela Shaffer in 47th, Emily Thomson in 56th and Deion Malloy taking 60th.