Lake Mills Cross Country Boys take 2nd, Girls 6th at Central Springs

The Lake Mills High School Boys Team had everyone in their top 7 record personal record times, with Justin Rygh winning the race with his personal best by almost a full minute, with a 16:22.05!  He was 27 seconds ahead of 2nd place and dominated the field with steady speedy.  Knute Rogne placed 5th with a time of 17:37:55.  The Bulldogs placed 2nd, behind Forest City out of 8 teams.

Our boys ran such an amazing race, with everyone cutting around a minute or more off their time.  The course was beautiful and mostly flat, and the weather was perfect for running.   Justin ran so hard and was so consistent that he was 27 seconds ahead of 2nd place and dominated the field with his steady speed.  Freshman, Knute Rogne, continues to impress and improve his times to place 5th and help the Bulldogs Team score!  Sophomore Kade Van Roekel ran his best time ever with a 18:38:38 to place 17th, Freshman Hayden Thompson did as well with a 18:52:58, and to finish top 5 scorers, Freshman Steven Brandenburg (who has never been out for cross country before) broke the 20 minute mark with a 19:14:36.  Every boy runner beat their best time this year and had a great night.  The Bulldogs placed 2nd out of 8 teams, falling oly to 2A Forest City.  Lake Mills edged Mason City Newman to place 2nd.  It’s the best team finish of the season, and their hard worked paid off!

The Lake Mills Girls High School Team also ran a great race with 6 runners competing and 5 of them beating their best time by a minute or more.  First season of cross country runner, Senior Josie Helgeson ran her fastest time ever with a 21:36:19.  This was two seconds short of beating a school record for fastest girls 5k.  She is now 2nd on the LM leaderboard.  Her previous time was 22:37:77.  Kyla Johanson recorded her best race ever tonight, beating her previous career PR, and taking over a minute and a half off. The other girls ran a minute or more off their time, some close to 2 and one over 6 minutes!  Super proud of their effort and how much they’ve improved and support each other.

The girls had their best team results finishing 6th out of 9 teams, and are continuing to see their times and scores drop as they believe in themselves and each other.

The whole team, boys and girls, do everything together, so the dynamic of this sport is different then most as the boys and girls are there for each other, cheering, supporting, giving words of encouragement, and really excited to see each other improve and do well.  So proud of all these athletes and excited to see what the future holds!