(Shenandoah) -- Glenwood took home team titles from both the boys and girls races at the Shenandoah Cross Country Invitational Thursday.
In the girls race, it was a comfortable victory for Glenwood, which finished with 32 points to second-place Clarinda’s 83. But while the Rams dominated the team standings, Clarinda’s Mayson Hartley (19:39) dusted the field individually.
“[Shenandoah’s] course is pretty flat, so I just wanted to go out and stay out and compete with everyone in that top pack,” Hartley said.
Hartley finished 42 seconds ahead of runner-up Lauren Hughes (20:21) of Glenwood.
“It was a super fun race today,” Hartley said. “I knew Glenwood would be really good competition and I just wanted to go out with those girls and see how I could compete.”
Glenwood placed five runners in the top 14 and it did so without its top varsity runner, Madelyn Berglund, who dropped out mid-race due to injury.
“Today went really well considering our number one runner went down halfway through,” Glenwood girls head coach Marissa Klindt said. “The girls responded so well to that. I kept
telling them, ‘we need you, we need you to do everything you possibly can.’ And they did. We’re so proud of them for that.”
Lauren Hughes
Hughes paced the Rams, while Breckyn Petersen (20:37) took fourth, Emerson Griffin (21:38) placed 10th, Haylee Hughes (21:52) was 12th and Kate Hughes (22:00) finished 14th.
“I felt really good in that race,” Hughes said. “The weather was really nice and it’s about that time we start peaking. I think me and my team are all getting to that point.”
Glenwood’s 51-point victory Thursday is its largest of the season.
“We’ve loved watching them improve,” Klindt said. “We’ve been talking about closing that gap between our one through five, so to see them close that even more today was amazing. That’s what we’ve been working for. “
Hartley, Klindt, Clarinda’s Maya Hunter (20:34), Petersen and Underwood’s Lilly Erwin (20:44) rounded out the top five.
In the boys race, Lewis Central’s Ethan Eichhorn made light work of the course with a blistering time of 15:38.
“I had a couple [strategies] in mind coming in,” Eichhorn said. “I wanted to go out hot but that doesn’t really work for me, so I just wanted to go out comfortably and feel good throughout the race and I did that.”
Ethan Eichhorn
Eichhorn battled it out with Riley Blay of Nodaway Valley (Mo.), who earned runner-up honors, coming in at 15:52.
“I knew Blay was gonna be really good competition,” Eichhorn said. “I wanted to come in and run a smart race but I got out a little too hot and then just tried to run on [Blay’s] hip. He ran a really smart race, he put together a couple surges where he almost lost me, but I knew I had to battle. [I got to] a couple hundred meters left where there’s a big hill and just tried to drop him right there and it worked out for me.”
The team standings were all Glenwood up and down the leaderboard, as the Rams had four runners inside the top 10. Bryant Keller (16:15) led the way with a third-place finish, Andrew Smith (16:30) was sixth, Liam Hayes (17:03) placed ninth and Kevin Coots (17:08) finished 10th.
“That’s a great performance,” Glenwood head coach Todd Peverill said. “We’re trying to close in on Lewis Central’s top three guys and it’s a battle. It’s gonna be fun to see what happens. In every meet that we run now, we’ll be up against Lewis Central, so it’ll be a good barometer for us to see how we’re gaining.”
The Rams beat the runner-up Titans by a whopping 30 points thanks in part to Keller keeping pace with the top pack.
“The pace was a little bit quicker than [Keller] was used to,” Peverill said. “He’s starting to close in. Eichhorn just ran a brilliant race today.”
As the regular season wanes and the postseason looms, Glenwood is gearing up for the state-qualifying meet on its home course.
“We’re just making sure we run our course correctly,” Peverill said. “If you don’t run it right, it’s gonna add a lot of yardage for you, so we’re trying to get it right… we’ll see what happens.
Watch the full interviews with Hartley, Klindt, Eichhorn and Peverill below.
Find the complete results from the meet below.
