×
×
homepage logo

BEA competes in BSC Championship

Girls finish sixth, boys are seventh at meet held at Minn-Iowa

By Kevin Mertens - Staff Writer | Oct 20, 2024

BEA’s Natalie Griffey works to stay ahead of a Luverne runner at the Big South Conference Cross Country Championship held on Tuesday, Oct. 15.

The Big South Conference Cross Country Championship was held at the Minn-Iowa Golf Course on Tuesday, Oct. 15.

The meet was divided into large schools and small schools with Blue Earth Area competing against the other small schools.

Girls Results

The Bucs finished sixth out of a total of seven small-school teams.

Redwood Valley finished first among the small schools with 23 points followed by runner-up Luverne with 60.

Every one of the seven BEA runners competing in the varsity meet set either a season-best or personal-best mark.

Aubrey Woodwick was the first BEA runner to cross the finish line. Her time of 21:10 put her in 12th place.

Sidney Eitzman was only 22 seconds behind Woodwick with a time of 21:32 which was good for 16th place.

“Aubrey and Sidney both earned All-Conference honorable mentions with their performances,” BEA coach Peter Koenig said. “Aubrey had a season-best time and Sidney set a new personal record.”

Natalie Griffey had a time of 22:39 to finish in 25th place.

April Garcia was 48th in 26:10, Makayla Ankeny was 49th in 26:18, Myla Eastman finished 52nd in 28:37 and Analiz Leal was 54th in 32:38.

Natalie had her fastest race of the season while Makayla kept up with April and they both set new personal records. Myla got stuck in a ‘no man’s land’ but still managed some mental toughness and had an awesome race and Analiz had a great personal record.”

Boys Results

Luverne claimed the title for the boys among the small schools with 31 points. Redwood Valley was second with 31 points and Windom was third with 76 points.

The BEA boys finished seventh with 182 points, but all seven varsity members set new personal records at the meet.

The top finisher for the Bucs was Devin Haase with a time of 19:22 which put him in 23rd place. Marcus Eckles was 37th with a time of 20:34.

“Devin cruised to his first PR since his freshman year and dropped 30 seconds off his time,” Koenig commented. “Marcus shaved almost 40 seconds off his time from last week.”

Gibson Haase finished the course in 21:42 to finish 42nd and Sam Bell was 45th in 22:04.

“Gibson is getting his time to be more consistent as the year progresses,” Koenig said. “Sam dropped more than a minute off of his time to hit a new PR during his first year of racing.”

Oliver Ankeny was 48th in 23:02, Michael Vaske was 49th in 23:16 and Noah Hanson was 50th in 23:25.

“Oliver did a great job and ran faster than last week on the same course,” Koenig remarked. “Michael and Noah took advantage of the fast pack to push themselves to new PRs by almost two minutes each.”

Gus Ankeny ran in the junior varsity race and finished 39th with a personal-record time of 25:33.

“Gus Ankeny proved his mettle with his second official competition at 5,000 meters,” Koenig said. “It was a great job by all.”