Elise Boulton qualifies for third trip to state cross county

​   The Montezuma Cross Country teams traveled to Marshalltown for Thursday's 1A/4A state qualifying meet site.
   Racing first, the Montezuma girls faced off in a highly competitive race featuring three teams ranked in the top ten as well as three others teams who also made recent appearances in the rankings. Elise Boulton finished ninth overall for the Bravettes with a 21:00, clinching her third individual trip to the state meet in three seasons. Freshman Madison Johannes finished 42nd, freshman Mia Boulton 47th, and Rebeka Teumer 48th.
   The Bravettes finished in 7th place as a team, the highest team finish in girls 5K history. With the finish of the team season, the Bravettes graduate two senior leaders in Carissa Van Zee and Madelyn De Jong's whose contributions as team leaders and tone setters of team culture will be missed. 
   On the boys side, Brydon Henning finish 31st with an 18:49, Brayden Stockman finished 40th with a 19:03, and Colton Benson finished with a 22:51, his second strongest time of the season and a great finish to the season. The Braves graduate senior Zach Templeton, who missed the second half of the season due to an untimely injury.
   The future is bright for the Braves and Bravettes as they look to add from the nine 8th grade runners who finished competitively at the conference meet.
   Moving forward, junior Elise Boulton will run at the 2019 Iowa State High School Cross Country meet on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. at the Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge. 

Note: Monte Journal would like to thank Coach Gartman for providing us with Cross Country stories throughout the season. 

Photo furnished by Marie Boulton.