Bombers Compete In Dodger Invite

Ballard Scores 657 Team Points

October 7, 2022

The Ballard men's cross country team competed in the Dodge Invite on Thursday. The Bombers finished 22nd overall scoring 657 team points competing against many Class 4A schools. Seth Pencook finished 106th for the Bombers finishing in a time of 17:27.1. Austin Shoen and Trent Payne finished 121st and 131st.

Comments From Head Coach Scott Barth:

"The boys ran a very solid race against some stellar competition which included 14 ranked class 4A teams and 4 others in the field. So even though a 22nd place finish doesn't look impressive, considering that there were so many ranked teams running, we did well with a short-handed lineup.

Seth Pencook ran a solid time of 17:27. Austin Shoen was next with a time of 17:45. Trent Payne had another great race and set a career PR of 17:59 in the process. He is showing growth and beginning to push upwards to our top 2. Bradley Sage also showed great race strategy and ran an 18:12 which is his career PR as well. Max Davidson came back from injury and gutted out a solid 18:58. Getting him back 100% is a key for our boys as he has been running with our 3-4 runners for most of the season. Peyton Johnson stepped into varsity competition and set his career PR in a time of 19:05. His upside is good and we are waiting for him to push himself outside of his comfort zone. He always looks comfortable and getting him to push himself a bit more is on the training plan over the next few weeks. Logan Huntrods closed out the varsity lineup with a gutsy 19:57 as he was also running not at full strength. We were without a consistent varsity runner in Jayden Leland tonight as we have been resting him with injury. We have hopes that he will return to the varsity lineup for the RRC meet on Tuesday. A shout out to Ian Godbold and Braden Kubichek as they ran solid races in JV and appear to be moving into contention for a spot on varsity as well.

So, even though the boys might not be as flashy as other teams, they continue to show great improvement from last season. Their times last night were in many cases over 30-45 seconds faster than on the course last season. We hope to get everyone healthy heading into the next two weeks and enter SQM as a darkhorse and make a run to get that state ticket. It won't be easy with lots of great teams statewide, but it is fun feeling good about where we are at and what we can still do."

The Bombers are back in action on Tuesday - October 11 when they compete in the Raccoon River Conference Meet in Adel. The meet will feature the middle school, junior varsity, and varsity and start at 4:00 PM.

DODGER INVITATIONAL MEN'S TEAM SCORES (Top 10)

1. Dowling, 55

2. Norwalk, 128

3. Johnston, 133

4. Ankeny, 154

5. West Des Moines Valley, 168

6. Waukee Northwest, 186

7. Sioux City North, 217

8. Ames, 234

9. SE Polk, 241

10. Urbandale, 268

22. Ballard, 657