Comets win 3 of 4 races at Algona XC Invitational

Press Staff Report
ALGONA — The Charles City cross country program won three of four races Monday during an invitational hosted by Algona High School at River Road Golf Course.

For the Comet varsity girls, it was its second meet win in a row coming off the Mason City Mohawk Invitational held last Thursday.

In the varsity girls race, Charles City placed three runners in the Top 10. Comet junior Kiki Connell placed second with a 5K time of 20 minutes, 22.24 seconds behind Humboldt’s Bryce Gidel (19:57.73).

Charles City sophomore Lydia Staudt placed fourth (20:17.03).

With Mindi Neve placing 10th (22:26.57), Monika Kacprzak placing 14th (22:52.67) and Lydia Thompson placing 24th (23:24.68), the Comets paced the 14-team field with 53 team points, 13 points better than runner-up Spencer.

Charles City’s varsity boys placed third among 18 teams with 134 team points, 3 shy of runner-up Okoboji. Humboldt, led by Quinton Orr’s winning time of 16:49.66, won the race with 84 team points.

Top five scoring runners for the Comets were Jacob Vais (16th, 18:36.74), Phillip Bachman (20th, 18:49.48), Alex Bauer (25th, 18:59.12), Bronson Forsyth (33rd, 19:09.32) and Zach Graeser (41st, 19:24.71).

While winning the junior varsity girls race, the Comets placed five runners in the Top 10 — Ingrid Hernandez (1st, 23:16.35), Liz Fiser (3rd, 24:29.69), Kaylin Patten (5th, 25:52.50), Claire Eckenrod (6th, 26:01.60) and Hannah DeVore (10th, 27:01.47) — and six in the Top 11 when including Astrid Hernandez (27:22.83).

The Comets also placed five runners in the Top 10 while winning the junior varsity boys race — Antwone Cooper (3rd, 19:43.13), Max Deeter (4th, 19:44.29), Tyler Eggers (5th, 19:45.25), Jared Johnson (8th, 20:19.02) and Griffin Franksain (10th, 20:21.22).