Cross Country Competes at Clear Creek and Middle Park Invites
By Amy Peters:
Lake County High School’s cross country team had a busy week, competing at Clear Creek High School on Tuesday, September 12, and at the Middle Park Invitational on Saturday, September 16. Both courses challenge the competitors with long, difficult hills and trail running.
Tuesday’s races almost didn’t happen because of a slow-moving storm in the area. After a substantial delay, the high school harriers were finally cleared to compete. Although no times have been released from the meet yet, the Panthers placed well and were pleased with their performances.
Joe Koch, who was 19th in 2016, finished 5th this year. His teammates all came in together- Jarrett Rongstad was 19th, Conner Lenhard took 20th and Zayden Tufte placed 21st out of 71 total runners. In the team competition, the boys were 4th out of 8 schools.
Molly Lenhard finished first for the Lake County ladies. She moved up 2 places from last year to take 6th. Not far behind, Ariel Benney ended up 10th. Showing a big improvement from her 40th place last September, Abby Holm took 29th. Teammate Jackie Williams was 30th, and Hannah Holm finished 46th.
As a team, the Lady Panthers were 5th.
Middle Park High School hosted their invitational at Snow Mountain Ranch, the YMCA camp located between Granby and Winter Park. Once again, most of Lake County’s returning athletes improved from their 2016 races.
Molly Lenhard dropped over 1 minute off her time, to run 26 minutes 49 seconds and place 28th. Despite being sick all week, Caroline Benney ran 27:29 and finished 33rd. Ariel Benney came in 42nd with a time of 29:01. Completing the course in 30:51, Jackie Williams took 61st. Shattering her time from last year by 15 ½ minutes, Abby Holm placed 88th in 34:38. Hannah Holm was 101st with her time of 37:12, almost an 8 minute improvement.
The girls team was 7th out of 10 schools.
Last year Joe Koch ran 24:56 on the Middle Park course. On Saturday, he cut his time down to 21:30. Last year he placed 58th, and this year he took 11th! Conner Lenhard was the 2nd Lake County male to finish. He ended up 38th with a time of 23:43. With an excellent finishing sprint, Jarrett Rongstad came in 40th in 23:51. Zayden Tufte earned 47th place by running 24:13, which was still well under Koch’s 2016 time and place.
Unfortunately, 5 athletes were needed to score as a complete team on Saturday, so the boys did not place as a team.