Cross Country runners-up

Ipswich placed second in both the girls and boys varsity cross country runs during the Potter County Invitational on Saturday in Gettysburg.

Ashlinn Hartwell individually placed fourth in the 5K in 20:46.17, won by Autumn Fallis of Highmore-Harrold in 19:28.93. Madisyn Gellhaus was sixth in 20:59.86 and Gracyn Kadlec was eighth in 21:33.38, all in the Top 10.

The girls were second to Potter County, 12 to 15.

Ipswich would then also place second as a team in the varsity boys' outcome to Highmore-Harrold 18 to 19, close indeed! But Nicholas Schlachter of PC won the event in 17:35.82.

Coach Todd Thorson said, "Coming off of homecoming week I was extremely impressed with our effort. The girls 1-3 runners total time was 1 hour 3 min and 8 seconds.  Last year our total time 1-3 was 1 hour 6 min 10 seconds.  The varsity scorers were over 3 minutes faster than last year's squad so they keep showing that they are way ahead of last year's group."

Dylan Wald was sixth in 18:46.80, followed by Xavier Kadlec who was 11th in 19:15.04 and Taylor Thorson 12th in 19:16.57 and Turner Thorson 13th in 19:16.83.

"The boys had four in the top 15 and were only one point away from winning the meet," Thorson said. "They looked leg tired but the effort was outstanding. Their middle mile was by far their best of the year."

Ipswich also had some JV success, including Tyler Gellhaus seventh in 17:50.87. He was the lone Tiger boy in that race. " Tyler ran his first JV race ever and to be in the top 10 is impressive," Thorson said.

That was certainly true in the JV girls' run. Ipswich placed first in both the girls JV individual and team standings, thanks to Gabrielle Wald in 18:09.53. She was followed by Katelyn Tufte in second at 18:40.83. Their third scorer was Ava Davis in sixth at 20:25.14. Chloe Jager was 12th in 23:14.41 then 13th was Hailey Usselman at 23:36.77.

Thorson said, "On the JV side Gabby and Katelyn went 1-2 and and are ready to move to varsity."

Girls' middle-school results were encouraging to say the least. Aubree DeRaad placed first in 12:57.39, followed by Bella Unser in fourth at 15:39.53.

"The race of the day might have been by Aubree DeRaad in the MS division.  She is the first MS girl to break 14 minutes in that race at Gettysburg in our history and her time was 12:57," Thorson said.  "We have had a lot of good runners the last 20 years so to be well over a minute faster in that race is outstanding."

The boys' middle schoolers were Jace Stiles in fourth at 13:06.44 and in eighth was Clayton Horst in 13:29.67.

The Tigers will run in Faulkton today, Sept. 22, then in Miller on Sept. 27.