Lodi cross country opened their season at the Westfield Invite on Thursday Aug. 29. The boys team finished in third, and the girls in sixth.
On the boys side there were three runners who finished in the top-20. Lodi junior Everett Clemens finished with a time of 19:12.4, 32 seconds faster than his time last season. Clemens concluded the invite with an eighth place finish. Just below Clemens in tenth place is senior Roger Melland. He finished with a time of 19:28.8. In his first varsity race, Nolan Pertzborn finished in 13th. Head coach Kurt Wilson described Pertzborns 19:59 run as a, “very strong performance.”
Chase Maas and Caleb Lord supplemented the team with great depth; Maas finishing in 20th and Lord in 28th place. Lodi freshmen Ben and Carter Karls competed in their first varsity meet. Pardeeville finished in second place with a score of 46, and Aquinas in first with a 39. Both teams finished in the top-ten in State last season, so the Blue Devils had some tough competition.
“Although the boys placed well against some great competition, there was a sense that the boys were not satisfied and are looking forward to performing even better at the Lodi Invitational,” says Wilson.
On the girls side, there were two runners that cracked the top-20. Junior Rylie Wilcox finished with a time of 25:21.1. Wilcox finished in fourteenth, which coach described as a, “very nice race,” from his junior runner. After missing last season, Dakota Pierquet returns for her senior season. She had an 18th place finish with a time of 25:44.1. The sophomore duo of Ellie Fahey and Gabby Endres competed in their first race along with junior Micah Lee. Sophomore Zoey Bahe battled a side stitch for most of the race and placed 35th with a time of 29:55.3. Malinaly Fernandez improved two minutes from last season with a time of 31:56.3 at the invite.
“We need her (Fernandez) to improve even more if we want to be more competitive as a team,” says Wilson.
The girls team finished the invite in sixth place with a final score of 139 while the boys had a score of 77.
The Lodi Invitational is this Saturday, Sept. 7.
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