Greene County XC
By BRANDON HURLEY
Sports Editor
STUART – Led by significantly improved times top to bottom including two medalist runners, the Greene County girls’ cross country team raced to a third place finish Thursday, Sept. 1 at the West Central Valley meet in Stuart.
Seventh-ranked Panorama (1A) took home the team title with 43 points with West Central Valley coming in second at 71 points. The Rams finished with 91 points, ahead of Mount St. Mary (102) and Exira-EHK (110).
Olivia Hansen paced the Rams with her seventh place finish, running to a time of 21:22.65. Freshman Bailey Cunningham continued her hot start to her Greene County career cruising to 13th overall with a time of 23:32.
A fierce battle ensued for the final spots in the top-25 as Izzy Bravard and Ashlee Harmeyer came in 24th and 25th respectively to give the Rams four runners in the top 25. Bravard and Harmeyer ran nearly identical times, with Bravard finishing just a step ahead of Harmeyer at 24:32.1 to Harmeyer’s 24:32.6.
Three other runners finished in the top 50 – Kassie Lamoureux (36th), Regan Lamoureux (48) and Savannah Parker (50) to round out Greene County’s scoring for the night.
Head coach Kelly Simpson was blown away by how much progress his girls made in just one week after the season-opening meet in Ames. Five runners set personal bests last Thursday.
“We expected 60-90 seconds in improvement from the ISU course to the WCV layout. However, we were very shocked by the big drop in times by most of our runners,” the coach said. “Most of the team averaged between two and four minute drops from their season best one week.”
Nodaway Valley’s Reagen Weinheimer, the eighth-ranked runner in Class 1A, was the meet champion with a blistering time of 20:02.94. Twelfth-Ranked Brianna Hoffman of Panorama finished second with a time of 20:47.87.
On the boys’ side, just one Greene County runner cracked the top 50, Nick Killion, who ran a personal best of 19:57.8, good for 36th overall. Two other runners set personal bests (Brian Hardaway and Sergio Perez) to lead the Rams to an eighth place finish. Hardaway ran a time of 21:33 for 55th oral while Perez ran a 24:04.2 for 74th place.
Top-ranked Nodaway Valley (1A) was the team champion with 24 points followed by No. 4 Panorama (78), West Central Valley (87), Interstate 35 (102) and Mount St. Mary (142). Greene County finished with 220 points.
Second-ranked Shane Breheny of Nodaway was the meet champion with a time of 16:29.41. Fifth-ranked Rylan Heffernan of West Central Valley came in second with a time of 16:42.95.
The Rams had a week off to prepare for their next competition, the big home meet at Spring Lake State Park Thursday evening. The three-day, holiday weekend allowed the runners to recuperate and gain some extra reps.
“We’ be had some good long quality practices over the past two weeks, but most of those were to prepare us for our home meet out at Spring Lake that should be another fast course if weather conditions are good,” the coach said. “We are hoping for another drop in time. I don’t think it will be as big of drop in times, but we will still be expecting improvement.”
The Rams will compete against 25 teams Thursday in boys and girls action. Action is set for a 5 p.m. start.
For more on the big meet and what to expect, check out the preview story on page one.
Rams prepare to host annual Greene County meet Thursday
The annual Greene County meet will be held at 5 p.m. Thursday evening at Spring Lake State Park.
This year’s field will be one of the biggest and most diverse fields in more than 30 years as 25 teams from all over west central Iowa will compete, including eight total ranked boys and girls squads.
Fourteen individual boy and girl runners are ranked inside the top 30 in Classes 3A through 1A as well.
Among the teams making the trip are Panorama, Kuemper, IKM-Manning, Exira-EHK, Des Moines Christian, West Marshall, South Hamilton, Winterset, Southeast Valley, Perry, Paton-Churdan, Denison-Schleswig, Creston Community, Boone, Audubon, Algona, Collins-Maxwell-Baxter, Colo-Nesco, Nevada, Ogden and Roland-Story.
Ogden’s Andrew Stumbo enters the meet as the most decorated runner, the defending Class 1A champion and the top-ranked runner in Class 2A.
The South Hamilton boys (Class 2A) and the Panorama boys (Class 1A) come in as the highest-rated teams, both holding on to the No. 4 spot. Panorama is the highest-ranked girls team at No. 7 in Class 1A. One other top-10 rated team is competing, in the ninth-ranked Collins-Maxwell-Baxter girls.
IKM-Manning’s Payton Sporrer is the most distinguished female runner and is ranked seventh overall in the Class 1A rankings.
Southeast Valley’s Spencer Warhime (sr.) is ranked No. 7 in Class 1A and is the third top-10 ranked runner competing Thursday.
Rated teams competing at the Greene County meet:
Girls
• #12 Dension-Schleswig (Class 3A)
• #9 CMB (Class 2A)
• #7 Panorama (Class 1A)
• #13 Colo-NESCO (Class 1A)
• #15 Adair-Casey/Guthrie-Center (Class 1A)
Boys
• #4 South Hamilton (Class 2A)
• # 4 Panorama (Class 1A)
• #15 Colo-NESCO (Class 1A)
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