Comet girls win second meet at Dick Bell XC Invite

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

EAGLE GROVE — In the ongoing race against weather, the weather seems to be winning.

Or at least it has muddied up the local cross country schedule.

Since the Mason City Invitational on Sept. 18 — which the Charles City girls team won for its first team victory of the season — the Comet XC program has seen three straight meets washed out. During Charles City’s Homecoming last week, the Comet boys and girls XC squads were the only school teams that didn’t compete in a varsity event.

Going into this week, it looked like more of the same as the site of the Dike Invitational scheduled for Tuesday had been deluged with 6-inches of rainfall in a 24-hour period.

At 2:45 p.m. Monday, Charles City was informed that the race was going to be postponed. But this time, the Comets were able to outrun the weather as in less than a half hour they were able to pick up another event — the Dick Bell Invitational at Eagle Grove Country Club — for Tuesday.

“We are so thankful to have such a supportive athletic director and transportation department to work with to give our kids opportunities to run,” Charles City girls head coach Amanda Rahmiller said. “I also can’t say enough about how accommodating schools have been to allow others in at the last minute. ‘Iowa Nice’ at its best.”

Not only were the Comets grateful, they took advantage of what has become a rare opportunity to run.

With Charles City sophomore Kiki Connell and senior Whitney Martin leading the way with respective second- and third-place finishes, the Comets won the varsity girls race with 37 team points — well ahead of runner-up Spencer (63).

Connell’s 5K time of 19 minutes, 26 seconds was her fastest of the season. Bryce Gidel of Humboldt was the girls champion with a time of 18:58.32.

“(Gidel) is a well-known competitor for Kiki and having that solid competitor helped Kiki run a significant season best,” Rahmiller said.

Martin also ran a season-best time at 20:41.

“She came into the last 300 meters side by side with (Elisa Fisher of Spencer) and edged her out at the finish,” said Rahmiller, who was also impressed by freshman Lydia Staudt, who was Charles City’s third runner in with an eighth-place time of 21:10.

“She looked phenomenal,” Rahmiller said of Staudt. “There was a pack of Spencer girls in front of her that she worked on edging closer to and finished in front of two of them. It was impressive to watch her move around so efficiently and focused.”

Fourth runner in for the Comets was junior Mackenzy Bilharz (11th, 21:40); the fifth CC runner was senior Mariah Mackenzy (13th, 21:53) to complete the first-place team scoring.

“ A highlight of the night was Mindi Neve finishing 14th right behind Mariah,” Rahmiller said. “Last week Mindi dropped under 23 minutes for the first time and within five days she’s now under 22 minutes (21:54). I don’t think we’ve seen the best out of her yet either.”

Adison Olson finished 20th with a time of 22:18, and Brianna Ross placed 27th with a time of 22:50 for Charles City.

“Overall, just a very focused and determined race all across the board; we’re running well when we need to be running well and there’s a lot of excitement in the air heading into conference on Tuesday,” Rahmiller said.

Dick Bell Invitational

Oct. 2

AT EAGLE GROVE COUNTRY CLUB

Girls Varsity Race

Team Placing

1. Charles City 37, 2. Spencer 63, 3. Gilbert 79, 4. Humboldt 84, 5. Algona 148, 6. ELC HS 184, 7. GHV 184, 8. Clear Lake 185, 9. Clarion-Goldfield-Dows 272.