"It was a good day for the Tigers. The varsity boys ended up running 6k instead of 5k but that will be good for training purposes," says Coach Thorson after the Tiger results in a Battler Invitational cross country meet at Gettysburg last Saturday.

How good was it? For starters, the Ipswich girls placed first in both the varsity and junior varsity team scores with six points each. And the varsity boys were third as a team with 21 team points. (The hosts won that with 19 points, followed by Timber Lake with 21.) The Tiger boys JV contingent, meanwhile, was led by Dylan Wald, first in 16:19.91 and Evan Onken second in 16:45.08.

Girls first! Emily DeRaad placed second only to Highmore-Harrold's Autumn Fallis in the girls' varsity outcome (20:35.75 to 21:37.73). And the Tiger girls would indeed go 2,3,4 and 11 in their varsity individual standings. Yes, Ashlinn Hartwell was third in 22:08.65, Sommer DeRaad fourth in 22:25.18 and Ashley Ptacek 11th in 23:50.28.

In that girls' JV competition the Tiger girls finished 1-2-3-4 and seventh. Gabrielle Wald won it in 17:55.69, followed by Sienna Kessler in 17:57.66, Gracyn Kadlec third in 18:07.61 and Reaghan Bowers fourth in 18:36.29. The seventh-place Tiger runner would be Madisyn Gellhaus clocked in 19:43.93. There was one additional JV Tiger girl who didn't quite make the Top Ten that day, Makala DeRaad 14th in 22:46.02.

There were also several IHS runners in the girls' middle-school race, won by PC's own Jadyn Ahlemeier in 14:14.92. Katelyn Tufte was fifth in 15:01.53 followed closely by Anna Nierman sixth in 15:12.93. Ava Davis was 10th in 16:16.35, Natalie Crissman 11th in 16:48.97, Bella Unser 13th in 17:05.61 and Kearstin Pietz 14th in 18:10.21.

Now for the boys! The top Tiger varsity runner in what indeed turned out to be a 6K course was Taylor Thorson fourth in 22:15.86. Xavier Kadlec was 11th in 23:47.89 and Turner Thorson 13th in 23:52.21. It was won by Ian Beyer of Timber Lake in 21:07.57. There were three youthful Tiger boys in their middle-school competition that day. Tyler Gellhaus was fourth in 14:20.98, Clayton Horst sixth in 14:25.52 and Jon Kintz 13th in 15:41.77. Corbin Stark of Faulkton won that event in 13:30.13.

The IHS runners were next scheduled for a meet today (Sept. 23) in Ipswich, beginning at 1 p.m., then a September 28 Miller Invite, followed by an October 3 road trip to Highmore.