You don’t typically associate running with Fruit Ridge Hayrides in Kent City. This venue is usually reserved for cider, doughnuts, petting animals and well … hayrides. The grounds looked a little different on Saturday, as more than 30 local cross country teams gathered to enjoy the fall air and kick up some dust at the Sparta Invitational.
The Montague Wildcat boys and girls cross country teams were on hand competing in the Silver Varsity division. Although both teams would have liked to place higher, multiple runners posted personal bests, and both the boys and girls teams placed runners in the top five.
Owen Fairchild finished third overall for the boys with a personal-record time of 17:30.83. Isabelle Auch finished fourth overall with a time of 20:52.46, within 10 seconds of her season-best effort.
Rounding out the Wildcat runners were:
Boys
Cale Coppess – 17:50.66
Clay Johnson – 18:56.51
Kevin Roll – 19:38.11 (PR)
Conner Raeth – 21:17.29
Girls
Elizabeth Woller – 24:44.14
Claire Genter – 25:55.46 (PR)
Sam Beishuizen – 26:28.58 (PR)
NBC Middle School Results
The NBC (Montague Middle School) team competed in the middle school – division three race, with good showings from both teams. The boys placed second in the team event and the girls placed third. Noah Raeth was the highest placing runner for the boys, at second overall, with a time of 9:08.61. Callie Peterson was eleventh overall in the girls race with a time of 11:46.00.
Rounding out the middle school runners were:
Boys
Liam Leeke – 09:36.6
Dylan Bailey – 09:47.3
Thomas Leeke – 10:30.9
Rex Pumford – 10:50.3
Nathan Davis – 11:32.1
Nolan Kessler – 12:26.6
Steven Aebig – 13:10.9
Girls
Zaniyah Meza-Wilson – 12:39.1
Carmen Howard – 12:48.5
Shoshi Fouser – 13:13.8
Bree Berry – 13:33.9
Kendra DeYoung – 14:38.0
Makenna Roesler – 21:27.4
