GREENFIELD — Monday’s visit to the Nodaway Valley Invitational was a positive one for the Woodward-Granger cross country teams, especially for the Hawk girls varsity.
W-G finished third in the 11-team field with 138 points. Griswold was first at 60 and East Union second at 100, with the Hawks three points better than Earlham (141) for third. WCV (156), Interstate-35 (210), Clarinda (217), Mt. Ayr (219), Southwest Valley (229), Pleasantville (298) and Van Meter (319) completed the field, which had 109 total individual entries.
Regan Weinheimer of Nodaway Valley was the girls top finisher, completing the 5k in 20 minutes, 52.15 seconds. Earlham’s Eva Fisk was second, in 21:34.71, with Elise Emmick of Southeast Warren third in 21:49.83.
Kaitlyn Peters was the quickest W-G harrier, crossing 20th in 25:02.17. Josie Noland (23rd, 25:42.65), Natalie Helbling (29th, 26:18.21), Regan Kaufman (32nd, 26:25.34) and Savannah David (34th, 26:43.14) also scored for the Hawks, with Natalie Faultonson (33:55.57) running but not having her placing used for the team score.
Nodaway Valley dominated the boys race with 25 points, easily outpacing team runner-up Earlham (90). WCV (116) was third, with I-35 (155), Martensdale-St. Mary’s (200), Mt. Ayr (201), Griswold (204), Clarinda (211), W-G (229) and SE Warren (262) completing the top 10. SW Valley (281), Bedford (309), Van Meter (327) and Pleasantville (335) also generated team scores; 147 boys ran in the varsity heat.
Shane Breheny of NV was first in 17:41.43, with Griswold’s David Thompson second in 17:51.17 while NV’s Brycen Wallace was third overall in 17:53.56.
W-G’s points came on placings of 25, 41, 48, 53 and 62. Chandler Cavanaugh (20:10.7), Alex Bice (20:59.19), Hunter Pierce (21:24.36), Cody Garlan (21:38.05) and Kaya Bowlsby (22:27.49) provided the scoring times for the Hawk boys. Luke Brittain (22:27.49) was also in action but did not have his place scored.
Four Hawk girls and two Hawk boys ran in the two-mile middle school race. MaKenzie Dresback (16:32.9), Katie Grell (17:11.48), Sydney Grell (17:27.9) and Kaitlyn Smith (18:43.39) ran for the W-G girls and Parker Griffin (18:25.29) and Lucas Wasson (19:22.06) for the W-G boys.
Woodward-Granger will return to action Oct. 13 when they compete in the WCC meet at the Panora Par-3 Golf Course.
