IHS Cross Country runners compete at Highmore

Ipswich attended  a high school cross country invite in Highmore last Saturday hosted by their Action Club.

The Tigers ran quite well, narrowly placing second as a team in both the girls' and boys' varsity divisions. Wall, the team to beat at state in the girls' division, according to Ipswich Coach Todd Thorson, edged Ipswich 11 to 15 for the girls' team title, despite Ipswich's Tessa Kilber's 20:54.31 individual win. And Faulkton topped Ipswich 22 to 32 in the boys' varsity standings.

"It was a good day for the Tigers, especially considering having Max (Geditz) in the hospital in Sioux Falls with sinus infection," Thorson said. "In my opinion Wall is the top team in South Dakota in the girls' division, Kimball being number 2 and we were right there this week and last week. Sommer (DeRaad) and Kaylin (Onken) ran their first varsity race ever and they really looked good."

Emily DeRaad finished in fourth at 22:08.79 and Ashley Ptacek became Ipswich's third scorer in tenth place at 22:45.46. Then was Sommer DeRaad in 11th at 22:47.01 followed by Onkin, 22nd among 38 runners in 24:02.30.

How about the boys without their senior leader Geditz?  "The boys really brought it," Thorson said. "Taylor (Thorson) and Turner (Thorson) beat some good runners. This is a hilly course and the wind was gusting over 40 when they ran. The JV ran 5,000 meters today and Dylan (Wald) and Xavier (Kadlec) ran good times as well."

Individually James Valley Christian's Daniel Ayoroa won the boys' varsity event in 17:59.19. Taylor Thorson was indeed a Top 10 runner in seventh at 19:35.38, followed closely by Turner Thorson in eighth at 19:47.36. Evan Onken was next for Ipswich in 21st among 47 runners at 21:10.75.

Ipswich had two JV girls — Ashlinn Hartwell, second in 24:25 and Chloe Jager third in 24:43. And Wald was indeed first in the boys' JV race at 21:06 and Kadlec third in 21:36.

Ipswich featured five middle-school girls, led by Madisyn Gellhaus in fifth at 11:01. Gabrielle Wald was ninth at 11:33, followed by Gracyn Kadlec in 13th at 11:49. Ava Davis placed 27th in 12:52 and Natalie Crissman 34th at 13:33.

Ipswich will host the conference meet beginning at 12:30 today, Wednesday, Oct. 9, with the varsity girls followed by the varsity boys event.

Next Wednesday, Oct. 16 will be the Region 4B meet in Gettysburg at 1 p.m.