Cross Country meet held in Ipswich

Ipswich hosted a high school cross country meet at Split Rock on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon last week. "It was a good day to run," Coach Thorson explained. "I didn't run some varsity athletes because they had other workouts planned for the week."

And there were indeed no Tiger runners in either of the varsity events. So Aberdeen Roncalli swept the girls' event with a team championship score of 9 team points, led by Paige Schmidt first in 19:42.59 and Sarah Schmidt second in 20:08.94.

Meanwhile, Daniel Ayoroa of James Valley Christian topped the varsity boys' run in 17:09.93. But Northwestern won the boys' varsity team title, totaling 16 points.

Ipswich scored a perfect six to win the girls' JV team title, led by runner-up Gracyn Kadlec in 17:26.01. (Northwestern's Ella Boekelheide would capture the individual title in 15:54.82.) Ipswich got additional help from Ashley Ptacek fourth in 18:02.09, Gabrielle Wald fifth in 18:15.45 and Sienna Kessler sixth in 18:16.59. Reaghan Bowers also placed in the Top Ten at seventh in 19:03.61, as did Madisyn Gellhaus ninth (20:08.85) and Ava Davis tenth at 20.16.65. Makala DeRaad rounded out the Tigers' effort with her 14th-place 22:30.87.

Ipswich was fourth as a team in the girls' middle-school event, won individually won by Northwestern's Tara Blachford in 12:54.02. (Miller claimed the team title.) Katelyn Tufte was ninth for the youthful Tigers in 14:28.01 and Anna Nierman placed tenth in 14:32.74. Natalie Crissman finished 12th in 15:23.20, Bella Unser 17th in 17:16.76 and Kearstin Pietz 18th in 17:27.81.

Meanwhile Ipswich was also first in the boys' JV team standings, shading Frederick Area 10 to 11. And Xavier Kadlec was also first individually in 15:14.76, while Dylan Wald was third in 16:09.10 and Evan Onken eighth in 17:16.51.

Faulkton won the boys' middle-school team crown with 14 points, while Ipswich was fourth with a team score of 29. But Miller's Tyson Kindle won it individually in 11:42.96. Ipswich's trio of entrants were led by Tyler Gellhaus eighth in 13:28.17, Clayton Horst tenth in 13:47.79 and Jon Kintz 20th in 14:50.40.

Ipswich will run in the Highmore-Harrold Invite in Highmore on Saturday. Then Ipswich will host the Lake Region Conference meet on Oct. 7 beginning at 12:30 p.m.