Montezuma Cross Country Varsity Girls win first team title in more than three decades

   The Montezuma Cross Country teams came away from Tuesday's SICL Conference meet at North English with several exciting achievements and goals met. 
   Running first, the junior high girls found a lot of success in the meet as they came away with a meet championship and a perfect team score. The Bravettes placed six runners in the top 10 finishers as Ellen Cook placed 2nd, Alivia Cline 3rd, Makenna Johannes 4th, Lydia Singleton 6th, Camryn Brennan 7th, Aja Kapayou 8th, and Ashlee Eilander 10th. Outside the top 10, Hayley Burnett and Catelynn Coffin both proved their growth as they each took around two minutes off of their time on the same course four weeks prior. The junior high girls team will compete at the JH State Meet at Ankeny Centennial on Saturday, Oct. 19.
   Also battling in an exciting race, the junior high boys placed third as a team with high school scoring, or second as a team in junior high scoring (scored to four places) as they battled back and forth with a good Colfax-Mingo team. Carter McKee placed second overall, Jack Erselius in 7th, and Bryson Stockman took a minute off of his time on this course earlier in the year, finishing 18th. Rounding out the Braves and making some incredible jumps in their pacing were Jusiah Wetering, Jayden Ross, and Spencer Ross. The future for the Braves looks bright!
   In the most exciting team news of the night, the varsity girls program brought home the hardware as the girls team won their first team title in more than three decades as they won the championship by 10 points over Lynnville-Sully. Not only did the Bravettes run well as a team, they performed incredibly well as individuals. Junior Elise Boulton was a 1st Team All-Conference runner, placing 4th. Freshmen Madison Johannes and Mia Boulton placed 6th and 7th individually, earning 2nd Team All-Conference honors. Sophomore Rebeka Teumer was a conference Honorable Mention in 12th, and sophomore Haley Van Der Hart finished one spot back in 13th. Junior Carmen Klos and senior Carissa Van Zee rounded out the team scoring for the Bravettes. Junior Alyssa Cline finished as the third JV runner in the meet with teammates Sadie De Jong in 5th, Katie Probasco in 6th, and Madelyn De Jong in 7th. 
   The varsity boys race showed a lot of individual growth as well. Junior Brydon Henning placed 5th, earning 1st Team All-Conference recognition, and fellow junior Brayden Stockman finished 6th with 2nd Team All-Conference recognition. Freshman Colton Benson improved his time on the same course by four minutes and 36 seconds over a four week span and junior Dillon Nash ran his best race of the year.
   The varsity teams will run at the state qualifying meet (districts) on Thursday, Oct. 24 with a location to be announced later in the week.