Eagle cross country team takes sixth place at Webster City

The Eagle Grove boys cross country team had another nice showing at the Lynx Invitational last Tuesday in Webster City. Humboldt took the team title with 56 points, followed in top six of the 14-team meet by: South Hamilton 57, Roland-Story 83, Webster City 92, Algona 129 and Eagle Grove 184.

“We had 17 of our 18 total runners run a season best time for a great night,” stated head coach Ben Demuth. “Although it was only the second meet, many of their times were over a minute faster on a competitive course and field. I was not sure where we could end up in the standings, as I knew there were plenty of tough and quality teams at this meet that were ranked. To finish sixth was beyond my expectations. The whole week after Gilbert, we focused on the parts of the race that we could control. While I was happy with our showing at Gilbert, I was so proud of how they responded at this meet. I saw a lot of growth out of everyone, and we warmed up well before the race. We were a little more focused in our preparation to run, and ran smart races. These guys have listened to what we preached, and I appreciate their efforts. We know that we don’t have the top notch runners that many of our competitors have, and so the way we are going to compete is to pack up and that was evident during the race.”

Spencer Espejo clocked in first for the varsity, taking 17th overall in 18:37.17. Following him in order were: Jon Koester in 30th at 18:57.20; Derek Graham in 36th at 19:14.90; Jacob Arbaugh in 45th at 19:41.13; Jacob Graham in 56th at 20:10.67; Austin Hill in 63rd at 20:59.43 and Brady Beck in 70th at 21:31.48.

Read the full article in the September 7 edition of the Eagle.