AMES — The season for the Perry cross country teams opened their season Thursday when they participated in the Gilbert Invitational at the Iowa State University circuit.
The event drew 200 individual boys and 150 girls in the Class A portions of the meet, with 122 boys and 84 girls running in the Class B side.
The Bluejays placed 11th in the 12-team Class A boys field with 344 points. DC-G won the meet going away with 21 points, as the first five Mustangs crossed first, second, fourth, fifth and ninth. Gilbert was a distant second at 99 points, with Nevada third at 102.
Tyler Borneman of DC-G won the meet in 18 minutes, 2.34 seconds, with teammate Jared Brevard second in 18:14.29. David Parker of Saydel was third in 18:14.76, with DC-G’s Steve Borneman and Ean Followwill fourth and fifth, respectively, in 18:17.8 and 18:20.79.
Senior Morgan Holmstrom was 57th for Perry in 21:42.87, with junior Gerardo Gonzalez 69th in 23:29.59. Sophomore Jacob Prombo (71st, 23:40.47), senior Fernando Catalan (72nd, 23:47.46) and sophomore Aaron Lockwood (75th, 26:35.91) also scored for the Jays. Sophomore Luke Pfau (26:50.72) and senior Brody Kimrey (27:53.55) were also in competition for Perry.
Gilbert edged DC-G, 41-42, for the girls title in Class A. The teams were tied at 24 points and awaiting their fifth runner at the line when Gilbert’s Kenzie Miller edged DC-G’s Jessica Pugh, 23:04.52 to 23:05.81, for 17th place to secure the one-point win for the Tigers. Shenandoah was well back in third place with 83 points.
Lexi Smith (DC-G, 20:27.27), Carly Rahn (GLB, 21:09.37) and Maggie Pollard (GLB, 21:17.73) claimed the top three spots, with Shenadoah’s Claire Campbell fourth in 21:22.88 while DC-G’s Kaitlyn Murano was fifth in 21:40.12.
Perry had only one girl compete, with sophomore Grace Stewart crossing in 23:42.39.
“We wanted to get a first time in under 24 minutes, which would be a 7:30 (per mile) pace and we did that,” Jayette coach Nathan Krohn said. “Now our goal is to lower that pace to 7:15.”
Eagle Grove (33), South Hamilton (75) and Roland-Story (116) were the top Class B boys team finishers.
McCaulay King, Carter Asche and Dalton Schaffer were 2-3-5 for Eagle Grove in 18:12.94, 18:22.98 and 18:25.45, respectively, with Colo-NESCO’s Cole Dulaney first in 17:28.75 with Royals teammate Caleb Cobbs fourth in 18:23.78.
West Marshall’s Ashlee Johnson (22:10.4), Madie Streeter (22.15.36) and Shannon Breja (23:15.12) placed 2-3-4 to help the Trojans win the girls Class B portion with 36 points. CMB was second at 54, with Raider freshman Brenna Thomson fifth in 23:29.87, with PCM third with 97 points. Earlham’s Morgan Allen won in 22:08.5.
Perry will not return to competition until September 8 with a visit to the Winterset Invitational, which will begin at 4:30 p.m. The Bluejays and Jayettes will then travel to the Greene County Invitational September 10, which starts at 5:15 p.m.
