HUXLEY — The Perry cross country teams struggled Monday during action at the Ballard Invitational, with both the Bluejay and Jayette varsity teams finishing 11th in their 11-team fields.
DC-G won the Class A boys meet with 49 points, with Pella second at 55 and Carlisle third at 80 while Perry was assessed 288 points.
Carlisle’s J.J Orput won in 17 minutes, 8 seconds, with Pella’s Adam Sievers second in 17:14 and Winterset’s Curtis Harryman third in 17:17.
Dawit Adum’s 37th-place finish, in 19:27, led Perry. Morgan Holmstrom (20:21), Emilio Gonzalez (21:58), Mario Cruz (22:57) and Jacob Prombo (23:30) also scored for the Bluejays, who did not tabulate the placing of Fernando Catalan (23:43). Perry finished with an average time of 21:39 and spread (the time between the first and fifth placer on each team) of 4:03.
The Jayettes fared little better after accumulating 299 points. Pella (49) won the Class A girls meet, with DC-G (61) second and Ballard (74) third.
Ballard’s Abby Kohut-Jackson won in 19:20, with DC-G’s Lexi Smith second in 20:18 while Ciara Buchheit of Pella placed third overall in 21:07.
Grace Stewart crossed 21st, in 22:24, to pace Perry. The Jayettes had an average time of 27:44 and a spread of 7:50, as Darian McCord (28:20), Jacky Casteneda (28:38), McKinley Thompson (29:03) and Julissa Calderon (30:14) were the other placers; the team did not score the 30:33 of Alejandra Rivera.
A combined Class A/B junior varsity race was held for both boys and girls, with the Bluejays 19th of 21 teams while the Jayettes did not have the five required runners to generate an official team score.
Elmer Garcia (23:17), Kiza Ndume (23:18), Aaron Lockwood (25:00), Brandon Ruiz (26:36) and Brody Kimrey (28:31) scored for the JV Jays, with Bladimir Roldan (29:34) and Zach Mills (31:42) also running the circuit. Kat Munoz (33:13), Andrea Cortes (33:17) and Alondra Avila (37:27) ran for the JV Jayetttes.
The Middle School Bluejays were 11th of 15 but had a strong spread of just 2:21.
Luis Guzman (14:00), Chase Archer (14:33), Tony Burgos (14:53), Emanaul Cardenas (14:54) and Kyle Lockwood (16:20) scored, with Andrew Galindo (16:41) and Hayden McFarland (17:13) also running.
The Perry girls were 12th of 13, with Molly Lutmer leading the way in 15:19 while Hannah Peterson crossed in 16:38. Also scoring were Sophia Prombo (18:45), Angela Hernandez (19:50) and Alexis Martinez (22:14), with Bree Martin (22:33) and Bailey Piper (23:53) also on the circuit.
