Nearly perfect weather conditions--a rarity this cross country season-- greeted the one hundred twenty seven girl runners and the one hundred sixty five boys at the Nodaway Valley Invitational yesterday. The conditions apparently agreed with the ACGC runners as the girls finished fifth and the boys fourth in very competitive races.

Charger Kate Crawfrod set the pace among the large number of participants as she ran the 5K course in 19:49.99. Crawford is ranked third among class 2A runners, while teammate Rylee Sloss is listed in the number twenty six spot. Sloss turned in a time of 20:38.10 to claim seventh place in yesterday's meet. As a team, the Charger girls are ranked tenth.

Three conference rivals finished just ahead of the Chargers in the team totals. Van Meter was second with 85 points, Earlham finished third with 89, Panorama was fourth with 90, and ACGC was next with 92. Should make for an interesting WCAC meet at Panorama next week. The winner of the girls' meet yesterday was AHSTW with 82 points. Just ten points separated the top five teams.

Other Charger girls who figured in the scoring were Jorja Hoover who finished twenty seventh with a time of 22:38.46, Kiersten Knobbe (29th-22:47.99), and Alyson Embleton (39th-23:52.77). Other Chargers who ran but did not figure in the scoring were Taylor lemke (42nd--24:07.63, Jenna Stringer (44th-24:15.99), Jackie Trujillo-Garcia (52nd-24:45.07), Kenzie Reinhart (63rd-25:19.92), Reagan Rumelhart (64th-25:21.01), Keely Vasey (65th-25:22.24), Kennedy Young (91st-27:37.13), and Kendra Campbell (95th-28:08.34).

The Charger boys also faced good competition from conference foes, as two WCAC teams finished ahead of the Chargers. Earlham won the boys meet with 51 points, with Madrid coming in third with 66 points. ACGC claimed fourth with 111 points. Leading the Charger pack was Trevin Suhr who finished sixteenth in a time of 18:06.49. Close behind was Miles Kading who claimed nineteenth place with a time of 18:09.36. Two other Chargers were also in the top twenty five, as Justin Reinhart (18:29.26) and Eli Kading (18:35.34) finished twenty third and twenty fourth respectively. Also figuring in the team score was Ben Young who ran the course in 18:56.28, good for twenty ninth place.

Additional AGGC runners were Kaden Thompson (31st-18:57.39), Austin Wetzel (32nd-19:00.04), Donnie Swanson (38th-19:15.41), Austin Wierick (44th-19:45.82), Zander Kenyon (62nd-20:51.19), Zach Moon (66th-20:59.39), Lane Sheeder (88th-21:55.62), Connor Larsen (106th-22:54.04), Brennan Pederson (128th-24:49.03), and Justin Davis (140th-25:58.89).

Next up for the harriers is Thursday's meet at the Jewell Golf and Country Club which is hosted by South Hamilton High School. The meet is scheduled for a 4:30 start. The WCAC meet is the only meet on the schedule next week. The event is scheduled to begin at 4 PM and will be run at the Panorama par three golf course. Go Chargers!

Girls' team scoring: Boys' team scoring

AHSTW 82 Earlham 51

Van Meter 85 Ndway Vlley 57

Earlham 89 Madrid 66

Panorama 90 ACGC 111

ACGC 92 Van Meter 178

Ndway Vlley 108 W-G 200

Madrid 175 Mt Ayr 214

Mt Ayr 189 Bedford 255

E Union 286 SE Warren 266

WCV 299 I 35 270

Mart-St. Mary 305 Panorama 304

W-G 318 E Union 331

SWV 351 WCV 331

O-M 367

Mart-St.Mary 369

SWV 411