Edmunds County Tribune -

Ipswich swept both the girls' and boys' varsity team races at an invitational Cross Country meet hosted by Potter County in Gettysburg last Saturday.

Starting with the girls' event, Ipswich topped runner-up Cheyenne-Eagle Butte 7 to 17 in the team standings and the Lady Tigers also featured the top two individual girls in the race. Aleah Steger was first in 19:18 and Tessa Kilber second in 19:58. Emily DeRaad placed fourth among the 26 individual runners and her time was 20:47. Next was Ashley Ptacek in eighth with a 21:42 clocking, followed by Kari Kanable in tenth in 21:56 and Abby Olson in 14th at 22:15.

The boys' event was even closer with Ipswich edging Faulkton Area 13 to 17. Rhaecine Sam of Wakpala won the individual outcome in 16:52, but the Tigers featured the second-place runner Maxwell Geditz in 17:29. Ipswich also utilized Ben Kulesa's seventh-place effort of 18:21 and Dylan Owens was tenth in 19:16. Altogether there were 30 varsity boys.

"We moved Dylan, Ashley and Abby up to varsity for the first time and I thought they really had good races," said IHS coach Todd Thorson. "This will add some depth to our squads for our late season push. Tessa broke 20 for the first time this year and that is a really good sign for the Tigers as well."

Ipswich also ran in junior varsity and middle-school girls and boys events at Gettysburg and one of those highlights was a 1-2-3 Tiger finish in the boys' JV in the persons of Taylor Thorson, Evan Onken and Turner Thorson, respectively.

The IHS teams' next focus of attention will be an invitational in Miller on September 24.