By Bruce Thein

Blair Scherf placed seventh overall to lead the Central girls cross country team to a third-place finish Sept. 8, at the Clayton Ridge meet held at the Guttenberg Golf and Country Club.

Scherf completed the 5K course in 22:02.40—a season best and a new school record for the Clayton Ridge course. She was the first Central runner to cross the finish line and earned seven points toward the team score.

Payton Stannard and MacKenna Fisher finished next for the Central Warriors. Stannard placed 21st overall in 24:25.10, while Fisher followed in 22nd place with a time of 24:27.10.

Hadley Mueller finished 25th in 24:44.80. Anya Whittle completed Central’s scoring, placing 34th overall in 27:10.

The five scoring runners gave Central 89 points, placing the Warriors behind meet champion Maquoketa Valley and runner-up MFL MarMac.

Emersyn Wiley finished 36th in 27:20.50, and Harper Bennington was one-tenth of a second behind her, placing 37th in 27:20.60.

Central’s other finishers were Hannah Friedlein, 48th in 29:23.70; Claire Orr, 59th in 31:45.40; and Tenley Meyer, 68th in 34:42.60.

The times were season bests for Friedlein, Stannard, Meyer and Wiley, as well as a course best for Stannard, according to assistant coach Martha Bauder.

Central placed two runners among the top four to also finish third in the boys race. The Warriors scored 56 points, finishing only two points behind second-place Clayton Ridge and eight points behind team champion Beckman Catholic. MFL MarMac placed fourth with 70 points, followed by Maquoketa Valley with 117.

Freshman Cade Zittergruen led Central with a runner-up finish, completing the 5K course in a season best 19:15. He edged MFL MarMac runner Trace Moser by two-tenths of a second for second place.

Senior Jesse Polkinghorn gave the Warriors a second runner near the front, placing fourth in 19:22, in what was a course and season best for him. The two top-four finishes provided Central with a strong start in the team scoring.

Oliver Holdsworth was the Warriors’ third scorer, placing 11th in 20:40.50. Cruz Healy finished 19th overall in 21:01.10, and Tyce Zittergruen completed Central’s scoring by placing 22nd in 21:21.00.

Central’s next two runners also finished close behind. Breckon Holst placed 24th in 21:27.30, while Lukas Friedlein was 26th in 21:33.00—a course best for him. Keegan Sperfslage finished the race in 23:38.70, ranking him 33rd, followed by Arthur Thiese in 38th and Corbyn Clark 39th with respective times of 25:06.10 and 25:09.10. Griffin Koehn posted a 44th place finish in 26:45, and Bentley Banks was 50th on a time of 31:35.70. Clark and Thiese both ran season bests.

“A bit rainy conditions,” said Bauder, “but the kids competed well. We saw good battles coming through the last 100 yards and finish line. The tight team scores for the top three boys teams was exciting.”

Warriors also run at NFV's Bob Scott Invitational

After their success at Clayton Ridge, the Warriors were quickly back in action Sept. 10, at North Fayette Valley’s Bob Scott Invitational. The boys placed seventh among the 11-team pack, while the girls were ninth of 12 schools with full lineups.

Tyce Zittergruen was Central’s top boys finisher, crossing 26th in 20:14.1. Cade Zittergruen was a close 29th, just seven seconds back. Healy posted a time of 21:08.7, good for 36th place, while Holst and Keegan Sylvester placed a respective 55th and 56th on times of 22:07.5 and 22:11.8.

Next up for the Warriors was Mason Koehn in 69th, after running the race in 22:50.7. Sperfslage placed 85th in 23:42.4, Corbyn Clark 92nd in 24:15.4, Thiese 107th in 25:35, Ayce Clark 122nd in 28:12.2 and Banks 131st in 21:50.8.

Scherf continued to lead Central in the girls race, where a time of 22:36.2 secured 21st place for her. Mueller placed 39th for the Warriors, finishing in 23:49.3, followed by Fisher in 54 with a time of 25:01.6. A 61st-place time of 25:36.5 for Stannard and an 87th-place mark of 27:31.8 for Whittle rounded out the team scoring.

Other results included Wiley in 115th with a time of 29:41.8, Lilly Becwar 119th at 30:05.9, Friedlein 120th at 30:06.4, Orr 142nd at 34:03.9 and Meyer 145th at 36:08.2.

“With the sun blazing down on the runners and the course being just a bit long, we didn’t have as many season bests among our runners,” Bauder said. “But everyone still worked hard and competed well.”

Even so, Scherf and Tyce Zittergruen still turned in school records for the course. Becwar and Holst also had course bests, while Corbyn Clark secured a season best.

“The girls team was third among Class 1A teams, while the boys were second among our 1A class,” Bauder shared. “We were short four boys team members due to an overlap with our home football game where the boys were performing with our band, so we most likely would have been a lot closer to the Clayton Ridge boys.”

Now, Bauder added, “we’re looking forward to our home meet on Thursday, Sept. 17, where we hope to be full strength for the boys and close to full strength for our girls.”