Girls’ Cross Country turns back time, brings home team victory

   It was an exciting night for Montezuma Cross Country on Tuesday, Sept.17 at Knoll Ridge Country Club in North English as a group of 13 1A schools gathered for a cross country meet on a hot day.
   The high school girls ran first on the night and performed well with Elise Boulton medaling 3rd, Madison Johannes 7th, Mia Boulton 9th, and Rebeka Teumer 12th. With solid finishes from Haley Van Der Hart, Carmen Klos and Carissa Van Zee, the Bravettes took first in the meet, claiming their first program team victory in about 30 years. The Bravettes took the homecoming theme of "If I could turn back time" to heart with a performance that led them to a 28-point victory over second place BGM.
   On the high school boys side, Brydon Henning led the individuals with his 10th place finish while teammate Brayden Stockman also medaled 14th. With all four individuals, the Braves looked their strongest of the season on a course filled with rolling hills and with runners baking in the hot sun.
   The meet finished off with a combined junior high race with split results post-meet. On the girls side, the Bravettes rolled to their first unofficial meet victory as the JH results were not officially scored. With runners finishing 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 8th, 10th, 11th and 13th, the Bravettes had control of the field. With the top ten runners finishing as medalists, Ellen Cook, Alivia Cline, Makenna Johannes, Lydia Singleton, and Ashlee Eilander were able to claim their first individual medals of the season. On the boys side, the boys also claimed an unofficial meet victory by one point. 8th graders Carter McKee and Jack Erselius paced the Braves with their 3rd and 4th place individual finishes and 7th grader Bryson Stockman added a 13th place finish.