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Warrior boys fifth, girls seventh at opening cross country meet
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The Central boys cross country team bursts off the starting line in the Aug. 25 Ed-Co Invitational. They placed fifth in the team standings. (Photo by Bev Hamann)

Central opened its cross country season Aug. 25, with the boys placing fifth as a team and the girls seventh at the Ed-Co Invitational at Woods Edge Golf Course.

The Warrior boys posted a team score of 138, tying Beckman Catholic but coming out ahead in a tiebreaker. Waterloo United topped the field with a score of 43, followed by South Winneshiek at 69 and Starmont/West Central at 96.

Freshman Cade Zittergruen was Central’s top finisher, placing 20th in a time of 19:22. Senior Jesse Polkinghorn was a close 22nd after crossing in 19:30. Next up was junior Tyce Zittergruen in 26th, earning a time of 19:40, while freshman Oliver Holdswerth and sophomore Cruz Healy placed a respective 35th and 37th on times of 20:40 and 20:49.

Other Warrior finishers included junior Breckon Holst in 47th at 21:05, sophomore Lukas Friedlein 55th at 21:18, eighth grader Keegan Sylvester 57th at 21:21, eighth grader Mason Koehn 64th at 21:56, eighth grader Keegan Sperfslage 75th at 22:36, junior Griffin Koehn 99th at 26:10, freshman Ayce Clark 104th at 27:25 and freshman Arthur Thiese and junior Corbyn Clark a respective 108th and 109th with identical times of 28:49.

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Junior Blair Scherf led the Warrior girls at Ed-Co, running a time of 22:21 for 24th place. (Photo by Bev Hamann)

Junior Blair Scherf led the Warrior girls, running a time of 22:21 for 24th place. Eighth grader Hadley Mueller followed in 38th, after posting a 23:45, while junior Payton Stannard earned 52nd on a time of 24:52. Sophomore Anya Whittle took the 70th position with a mark of 26:15 and eighth grader Harper Bennington was right behind her in 71st, thanks to a time of 26:16.

Eighth grader Emersyn Wiley was 88th for Central on a time of 27:33, sophomore Katalina Dunlap was 104th at 29:34, senior Hannah Friedlein 106th at 29:43, sophomore Claire Orr 107th at 29:45, senior Lilly Becwar 110th at 30:05 and sophomore Tenley Meyer 128th at 35:58.

With a score of 191, Central finished seventh among the nine schools with full girls teams.

This week, the Warriors will head to Tri City Golf Course near Luana on Sept. 3, for the MFL MarMac Invitational.