The women's and men's cross country teams competed at the Fort Dodge Invitational on Thursday night.  The women's team finished 9th overall and the men finished 24th.  The women were led by Paityn Noe who finished third overall in a time of 18:31.  Ava Vance finished sixteenth in a time of 19:49.6.  The men finished 24th overall.  Seth Pencook paced the Bombers finishing 82nd in a time of 17:38.3.  

Comments From Head Coach Scott Barth:

"We closed out our regular season on a pretty good note tonight at Fort Dodge on the state meet course. It is pretty flat which allowed us to run some quality times tonight against some really good competition.

The girls placed a solid 9th place out of the field of 22 teams with a majority of those being in class 4A. The field included 14 ranked teams overall. Paityn Noe ran a very solid race and is moving in the right direction coming on strong and finished 3rd overall with a time of 18:31. Ava Vance ran her best race of the season, and possibly in her career finishing 16th in the team scoring with a career PR of 19:49, which eclipses her state meet time last season of 19:59 and moves her into the All-Time top 6 times in Ballard history. Annika Larson and Kate Huisinga ran as a tandem and placed 59th and 61st overall in times of 20:53 and 20:59. Brooke Loewe closed out the team scoring with a time of 21:59 which was good enough for 102nd place in the field of 194 runners. Ava Richardson, Erica Espinoza and Raegan Loewe also ran in the varsity field finishing with times of 22:13, 22:30 and 23:01. 

I was pleased to see some progress with our times and relative placement to other schools that we have seen over the course of the season beating both DCG and Indianola for instance after they beat us at our home meet earlier in the season. We were the top placing 3A team at the meet and beat some ranked foes in class 4A as well. We still have some work to do but I think we are on the right track. Our goal over the course of the next 2-3 weeks will be to tighten up our gaps, primarily between our #2, 3, 4 and 5 runners. We are looking pretty good in the 1-2 positions and the 3 and 4 ran well tonight and showing growth - the biggest key will be to find a way to close the gap between 4 and 5. Fortunately we have the time and the athletes to get this done. 

The boys were running without our #2 runner Trent Payne tonight as the last minute decision to rest him was made due to a minor injury and the . conference meet just around the corner. Seth Pencook did run a very good race running a career best time of 17:39. Chase Brekke ran a consistent race finishing in a time of 19:10. Bradley Sage had an excellent last half of his race and closed strong with a time of 19:17. Zack Charter continued to show growth in the number 4 spot, running a season best time of 19:34. Logan Huntrods and Kale Zimmerman closed out our varsity squad tonight running times of 20:22 and 20:54 respectively. 

It was good seeing some time improvements in the guys program also. It was a bit disappointing not having our full line-up once again, but those are the breaks in sports and we decided resting Trent was the best option heading into the postseason. Seth's race was really encouraging since it was his first time under the 18 minute mark in his career and he met a goal he had for himself. It is also encouraging to see the development of Bradley Sage and Zack Charter. All of these guys will be back next season and that is a good sign for our future. However, we still have at least 2 more meets in the season and have time to end the season on a healthy and strong note heading into the conference and state qualifier meets. I am confident that we have more in our tanks and with a good final push, can head up in the team standings."

The Bombers are back in action on Tuesday, October 12 when they travel to Boone for the Raccoon River Conference Meet.  The meet will start at 4:00 PM and feature the middle school, junior varsity, and varsity.

FORT DODGE INVITATIONAL WOMEN'S TEAM SCORES

1. Ames, 99   

2. Roosevelt, 100    

3. Dowling, 115   

4. Ankeny Centennial, 123  

5. Ankeny, 135    

6. Valley, 142   

7. Urbandale, 186   

8. Waukee, 228  

9. Ballard, 243    

10. Dallas Center-Grimes, 253  

11. SE Polk, 258   

12. Carlisle, 300   

13. Indianola, 336   

14. Johnston, 376   

15. Norwalk, 401    

16. Bishop Heelan, 409   

17. Waukee Northwest, 442   

18. Newton, 516   

19. St. Edmond, 546 

20. Lewis Central, 631  

21. Sioux City North, 676  

22. Boone, 704

FORT DODGE INVITATIONAL WOMEN'S INDIVIDUAL TIMES

3 Paityn Noe, 18:31

16 Ava Vance, 19:49.6

59 Annika Larson, 20:53.3

61 Kate Huisinga, 20:55.1

104 Brooke Loewe, 21:59.1

111 Ava Richardson, 22:13.3

121 Erica Espinoza, 22:30.3

FORT DODGE INVITATIONAL MEN'S TEAM SCORES 

1. Sioux City North, 41   

2. Dowling, 73   

3. Johnston, 114   

4. Norwalk, 153  

5. Dallas Center-Grimes, 159   

6. Waukee Northwest, 162  

7. Ankeny Centennial, 218  

8. Ankeny, 236  

9. Urbandale, 239  

10. SE Polk, 360  

11. Indianola, 366  

12. Valley, 405  

13. Carlisle, 412 

14. Roosevelt, 432 

15. Mason City, 438  

16. Ames, 442 

17. Glenwood, 457  

18. Newton, 479   

19. Lewis Central, 485  

20. Waukee, 507  

21. Sioux City East, 563  

22. Bishop Heelan, 620  

23. St. Edmond, 654  

24. Ballard, 725  

25. Fort Dodge, 794 

26. Boone, 798

FORT DODGE INVITATIONAL MEN'S INDIVIDUAL TIMES

82 Seth Pencook, 17:38.3 

154 Chase Brekke, 19:10.9

155 Bradley Sage, 19:17.7

161 Zack Charter, 19:34.9

173 Logan Huntrods, 20:22.5

178 Kale Zimmerman, 20:54.6