Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
H-M-S boys win second-straight WEC cross country title
A happy group of H-M-S cross country runners celebrates their second straight War Eagle Conference championship. Pictured from left to right: Carter Dolphin, Hayden Dolphin, Moises Gonzalez, Simone Dellavedova, Karter Zimmer, Blaine Finster, Damian Dodge, James Carlin, Aiden Bush, Easton Teal and Ryan Grotluschen. Bush (6th), Teal (7th) and Dodge (12th) qualified for the all-conference team.
Senior Kamryn Ebel is a first-time all-war Eagle Conference cross country runner, finishing third with a personal-best time of 23:17.
Ryan Grotluschen finished 18th at the War Eagle Conference meet, running a time of 20:10.
Senior Damian Dodge heads toward the finish line at the War Eagle meet. His 12th-place finish qualified him for the all-conference team.
H-M-S boys runners who qualified for All-War Eagle Conference designation show off their medals following last week's meet. Pictured from left to right: Easton Teal, Aiden Bush, Damian Dodge.
Kamryn Ebel was H-M-S's lone girl All-WEC runner.
Winning the first War Eagle Conference title in school history last year sparked a desire in the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn boys' cross country team to repeat that accomplishment. And that is what the Hawks did at the conference meet on Oct. 17 at Marcus.
Led by three all-conference performers, H-M-S won this year's championship with 57 points, outpacing MMCRU with 74 and George-Little Rock/Central Lyon with 82.
"Winning a conference championship had always been one of our goals for the season, so to see the hard work and sacrifices pay off and for it all to come to fruition was awesome," said Hawk coach Naet Hoaglund. "I couldn't be more proud of that group and how they competed."
The Top 15 runners qualify for inclusion on the all-conference team. Accomplishing that were senior Aiden Bush, sixth, 18:53; sophomore Easton Teal, seventh, 19:16; and senior Damian Dodge, 12th, 19:35. Bush and Dodge are repeat all-conference team members.
"Aiden has been our No. 1 for most of the races this year. I was really proud of his leadership and mindset going into the race," Hoaglund said. "Easton ran a really strong race. I love the way he competes in practice to set himself up for success in races. And I was thrilled for Damian. I thought he got stronger as the race went on."
The conference title would not have been possible without a solid group of runners who contributed to the overall team score. Freshman James Carlin finished 17th (19:59), senior Ryan Grotluschen was 18th (20:10) and senior Blaine Finster came in 20th (20:26). Junior Carter Dolphin finished 43rd (22:29).
"James and Ryan ran excellent races," Hoaglund noted. "I was proud of the race that Blaine ran, and I'm pleased with the time that Carter came in with."
The other team scores were South O'Brien 100, Akron-Westfield 107, Hinton 140, Trinity Christian 150 and Gehlen Catholic 152.
• Girls small in number, big in results
H-M-S had a small number of girls' competitors but their results were impressive. Senior Kamryn Ebel ran a personal best time of 23:17 to finish third, qualifying for the all-conference team for the first time.
"She was locked in early and ran a really strong race," Hoaglund observed. "She ran very confidently and intelligently, and it paid off for her."
Freshman Brooklyn Erickson finished 16th, just missing out on qualifying for the all-conference team. She ran a personal-best time of 26:48.
"From where she was in August to where she's at now is pretty incredible, and that's due to her hard work and willingness to get out of her comfort zone and compete with herself daily," Hoaglund said.
Hinton is also a repeat team champion, scoring 33 points to edge GLR/CL with 35. Gehlen Catholic scored 56.
Boys' JV competitors for H-M-S were freshman Karter Zimmer, fourth, 23:10; senior Moises Gonzalez, 12th, 27:51; and freshman Hayden Dolphin, 15th, 37:13.
Hoaglund said the overall results were the result of athletes' work throughout the season.
"I'm very proud of how our athletes competed. We had nine personal best times out of the 12 runners we had competing, and that's attributed to their hard work, preparation and trust in their training and race plan," he said. "To see their hard work and be mentally tough enough to go through challenging workouts and compete is a joy to see."
