This past week was a busy one for the Ellsworth runners. On Tuesday the runners competed on the hills of the Ellsworth golf course. I’d like to take this chance to thank all those who volunteered their time to help put on this meet, and to those who helped get everything set up, direct traffic, etc. As well, we need to thank Patrick Hammel, Colby Richard, and everyone at the Ellsworth Golf Course for allowing us to host this meet, and allowing us to practice during the season.

The Ellsworth course is always a tough course for any runner, and it proved to be tough again this year. The meet started with the seventh and eighth grade races, followed by the high school races.

The seventh and eighth graders each ran 2 mile races, and the high school teams ran their 5K distance. Junior High medals went to the top 10 individuals, and there were 15 medals awarded in the high school division. In the girls varsity race, Madison Newell led the way for the first half mile or so before being passed by Sacred Heart and Minneapolis runners. Kirsten Meier had a strong start to her final race at Ellsworth as well. On the boys side, Byron Johnson started the race in the front pack, and was running in contention for a medal until dropping back in the last mile, but still finished with his best career race time on the Ellsworth course. Colton Bettenbrock finished strong, with his best time of the season so far, and was faster than his Ellsworth race time last year as well. Trenton Holmes, Jacob Togersen, Aidan Johnson and Billy Duncan all started their races well, keeping with their season average paces too.

The final finishing results of the EJSHS Invitational were:

• Seventh grade girls: Reese Grothusen, 41st out of 58 runners, time of 19:50.

• Seventh grade boys: Tegan George 37th, 18:39, and Anthony Jundt 52nd, 26:50.

• Eighth grade girls: Addison Thomas medaled 10th, 16:09, and Kate Rathbun 19th, 21:04.

• Eighth grade boys: Grayson Stone medaled 3rd, 13:23 and Mikhail Meier 22nd, 19:58.

• High School varsity girls: Madison Newell 19th, 26:34, and Kirsten Meier 33rd, 29:29.

• High School varsity boys: Byron Johnson 21st, 20:11, Colton Bettenbrock 43rd, 21:38, Trenton Holmes 48th, 22:12, Jacob Togersen 49th, 22:25, Aidan Johnson 62nd, 26:15, and Billy Duncan 63rd, 27:58. The boys team finished ninth overall.

Two days and not a lot of rest later, the seventh and eighth grade runners had another 2 mile race, this time it was the NCAA League Junior High meet at the Rock City Park outside of Minneapolis. This was their final race of their season, and for some, the final race of their middle school careers.

All-League honors and medals went to the top five in each of the races.

In the seventh grade girls race, Reese Grothusen was 9th, running right at her season average mile times, with a finishing time of 18:48. In the seventh grade boys race, Tegan George ran at his season average mile times, finished 8th, running 18:20, and Anthony Jundt was 9th, running a personal best time of 19:03. The last race of the day was the eighth grade race, which would be the eighth graders’ final races as Junior High runners.

On the girls’ side, both of our Lady Bearcats came home as allleague medalists. After a strong first mile to separate herself from third place on back, Addison Thomas ran a 16:21 on her way to being League runner-up in second place. Kate Rathbun ran her best first mile of the season which put her solidly into the top five, and finished with a personal best 20:18 to finish as a 4th place league medalist.

On the eighth grade boys side, Grayson Stone medaled fourth running a 13:11, finishing in a pack of other runners, passing or holding off at least three runners in the last half mile to ensure his league medal. Mikhail Meier ran his career best first mile, to end the race with a personal best time of 17:31, finishing 21st place.