Near-perfect weather conditions, a big crowd and even some musical accompaniment greeted the big field of competitors at Thursday’s Leon Fox Invitational.
A small section of the Perry Blue Brigade walked around the Perry Golf and Country Club, playing a variety of numbers and cheers as well as the Perry fight song at the invite, in which 366 boys and 253 girls ran in varsity and junior varsity races as well as two-mile middle school heats.
DC-G scored 37 points to win the boys varsity race, with Nodaway Valley second at 66. Winterset (114), Bondurant-Farrar (123), Ballard (141), Roland-Story (166), Saydel (180), Madrid (189) and ADM (286) placed 3-9. Perry’s sixth runner finished two spots ahead of the sixth runner for Creston, breaking a tie for 10th at 292 points. The same scenario played out for 12th place, with Boone edging Des Moines North.
Drake VanBaale of Bondurant-Farrar was the overall winner in 16 minutes, 39.52 seconds. Alex Thompson of DC-G (16:40.84) and Dakota Rusher of R-S (16:46.08) placed 2-3 overall.
Zach Thompson crossed 44th, in 18:55.55, to lead the Bluejays, with Mario Cruz 54th in 19:13.06. Alexis Macias (56th, 19:14.86), Zach Stewart (62nd, 19:31.22) and Dane McCarty (76th, 20:35.92) also scored for the hosts, with Aaron Lockwood (21:15.27) and Juma Bushiri (21:36.76) running as well.
“Most of our kids ran better times,” Perry head coach Jeff Fox said. “Our kids love the course, and the fans love the course. The way it is laid out creates a kind of tunnel of fans, and I think that pushes all the kids. You go one step at a time and overall we are improving.”
Fox noted the perfect weather, and thanked the band members, volleyball and swim teams and fans from turning out and helping support the harriers.
Jayette head coach Shaylena Bell was also pleased with the effort of her runners.
“I was really impressed with a lot of our girls’ times,” she said. “We had a lot of girls make new personal bests and improved by leaps and bounds. Now we just need to avoid some little injuries and we will be much stronger for conference.”
Perry will host the Raccoon River Conference meet Oct. 10, with Fox eyeing the date as well.
“I think we will be in much better shape come conference,” he said. “Juma (Bushiri) was a little under the weather and we have had some little nagging things bothering us, but we should have all of that cleared up for conference and I am looking forward to seeing how much improvement we can show.”
Reagan Weinheimer of Nodaway Valley was the girls top finisher in 19:50.25, with Sydney Smith of DC-G (20:05.64) and Ellie Twedt of Ballard (20:08.45) finishing 2-3.
Ballard edged DC-G, 35-38, for the top team honors. Winterset (107), Creston (136), ADM (180), R-S (181), Madrid (196), Greene County (207), Boone (213) and B-F (255) completed the top 10, with Perry (292) 11th, Saydel (300) 12th and Des Moines North (353), 13th.
Grace Stewart was 18th for the Jayettes in 21:50.46, with Julissa Calderon 65th in 26:19.44. Darian McCord (67th, 26:59.91), Alejandra Rivera (70th, 27:16.9) and McKinley Thompson (28:02.64) also scored. Perry ran the minimum of five entries needed to score in the varsity race.
DC-G finished 1-2-3-4-5 for a perfect 15 points in winning the boys junior varsity race. Nodaway Valley (75) was second, with Perry eighth of 10 teams with 214 points.
Eduardo Sanchez (30th, 20:14.72), Hayden McFarland (41st, 21:02.48), Jacob Prombo (45th, 21:37.14), Beau Nelson (46th, 21:41.17) and Gabe Ridnour (52nd, 21:51.88) scored for the JV Bluejays, with Gerardo Gonzalez (22:34.98) and Ben Stika (22:51.43) also following the course.
ADM and DC-G were 1-2 in the boys middle school two-mile event with scores of 65 and 90, respectively, with Perry (296) placing 11th.
Tyler Devilbiss (29th, 13:24.14), David Roberts (59th, 14:58.7), Tanner Burgin (66th, 15:37.14), Kyle Lockwood (70th, 15:58.46) and Andrew Galindo (72nd, 16:30.67) ran for Perry.
Ballard won the girls JV heat with 25 points, with DC-G second at 39 while Perry was sixth of seven with 178 points.
Placing for the Jayette JV were Angela Hernandez (28th, 27:25.46), Taylor Eppert (34th, 29:39.26), Kyla Devilbiss (36th, 30:25.05), Andrea Cortez (39th, 31:23.86) and Elva Tavarez (41st, 31:59.9). Others running for Perry were Marleni Grijalva (32:29.34) and Alondra Avila (32:46.45).
DC-G’s 34 points won the girls middle school race, with Ballard second at 71 in the 10-team field. Perry had only four runners and thus did not generate a team score.
Jaylene Karolus (16:37.76), Ashley Macias (17:34 72), Amy McNamara (17:56.25) and Roselyn Avila (24:41.13) competed for Perry.
