A great day to be a Hawk

Two Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn cross country runners finished in the Top 15 and both varsity teams finished fourth at the War Eagle Conference meet on Oct. 10 at Hawarden.

Juniors Lexi Croatt and George Vargas earned all-conference recognition for their first time. Croatt finished 15th in the girls' race (25:44) and Vargas placed 14th (13th varsity) among the boys' finishers (19:36). Vargas is the first H-M-S male all-conference runner since 2018.

"It was a great day to be a Hawk," said H-M-S coach Kirsten Taylor. "We had our only all-conference athlete from last year graduate, so it was great seeing new athletes step up and receive War Eagle Conference honors."

Varsity and JV competitors ran together in both races. Placings reflect runners' varsity and overall finishes in the field.

Other H-M-S girls' finishers were Gracie Knobloch, 21/28, 27:15; Clara Funk, 23/32, 28:49; Kamryn Ebel, 26/37, 29:34; and Juliana Pasillas, 27/39, 30:17. A total of 58 girls competed.

Senior Bryce Dodge was a Top 20 finisher, but missed qualifying for all-conference with an 18th-place varsity finish. He was 20th overall in a time of 20:17.

Rounding out the rest of the boys' team were Aiden Bush, 24/29, 21:50; Damian Dodge, 35/44, 24:10; Blaine Finster, 38/49, 24:46; and Ryan Grotluschen, 41/53, 25:20. Seventy-one boys competed in the race.

"Overall our kids competed hard as a team on a new course that was unfamiliar to them," Taylor said.

Both H-M-S teams were just three points behind the third-place finishers. The girls scored 85 points and the boys finished with 107.

Unity Christian won both conference team titles. The Knight girls scored 18 points, runner-up Hinton finished with 50 and South O'Brien was third with 82.

The Knights topped the boys' standings with 21 points. Hinton was also runner-up with 92. Trinity Christian finished third with 104, followed by Akron-Westfield (tie with H-M-S) 107, Gehlen Catholic 113 and South O'Brien 114.

• State qualifying meet Oct. 20 at Holstein

Nine War Eagle Conference schools are among those to compete in a Class 1A cross country state qualifying meet today (Oct. 20). The girls' race begins at 4 p.m. at the Holstein Country Club.

Conference schools represented are H-M-S, Akron-Westfield, Gehlen Catholic, Harris-Lake Park (boys), Hinton, MMCRU, South O'Brien, Remsen St. Mary's and Trinity Christian. Runners from 10 other teams will also be competing.

"The opportunity is there to move on to the next level," Taylor said. "I'm looking forward to a strong showing at our last team meet of the season."

The first two teams and first 10 individual place winners advance to the state cross country meet at Fort Dodge on Oct. 28.