SAYDEL — The Perry cross country varsity and junior varsity teams competed in the Saydel Last-Chance Invitational Thursday, their final competition before Thursday’s state qualifying meet in Atlantic.
The Jayettes, fueled by a fourth-place finish from Grace Stewart, placed sixth in their eight-team field. North Polk had runners finish 1-2-3-6-7 to record an impressive 19 points, with Ballard second at 77. PCM (88), Nevada (118), Greene County (119), Perry (151), Carlisle (171) and Saydel (203) completed the girls varsity/junior varsity field.
Amelia Lesher, Sophie Schaffer and Sophie Blanchard were 1-2-3 for the Comets in 20 minutes, 13.48 seconds, 20:45.19 and 20:48.78, respectively, before Stewart interrupted the North Polk string by crossing fourth in 21:21.83.
The second Jayette to finish was Molly Lutmer, who crossed 29th in 24:16.13. Joselyn Carrillo (36th, 25:03.06) and Julissa Calderon (37th, 25:03.33) also scored, as did Darian McCord (45th, 26:46.6). Angela Hernandez (48th, 27:15.33) and McKinley Thompson (50th, 27:49.71) were also in action for the varsity.
Carlisle, rated 10th in Class 3A, was the boys varsity team winner with 39 points. North Polk was second at 55, with Saydel (96), Ballard (117), Pella Christian (124), Ankeny Christian Academy (169), Nevada (172), PCM (204) and Perry (220) rounded out the field.
Chris Ellens of PCM, rated 10th in 2A, won the boys race in 16:42.6, with 2A No. 16 Grant Dunsbergen of Pella Christian second in 16:55.12 while Carlisle’s Zachary Wilcox crossed third in 17:06.76.
Juma Bushiri (36th, 19:13.16), Jacob Prombo (38th, 19:19.43), Zach Stewart (46th, 20:20.15), Mario Cruz (47th, 20:24.24) and Dane McCarty (53rd, 21:07.26) were the five scoring runners for the Perry boys varsity, with Eduardo Sanchez (21:12.7) and Beau Nelson (21:48.03) also on the course for the Jays.
Kyla Devilbiss (28:45.4), Hannah Peterson (30:39.82), Elva Tavarez (30:59.03) and Andrea Cortez (31:73.38) competed for the Jayette junior varsity, with Aaron Lockwood (22:05.68), Gerardo Gonzalez (22:32.58), Miguel Gonzalez (22:47.74), Chase Archer (22:48.39), Ben Stika (22:55.38), Collin Malmberg (23:55.85), Alex Thompson (24:29.05), Calvin Sass (24:45.63) and Roger Jacobson (27:57.87) running for the Bluejay JV.
Perry did not compete in the middle school races.
