Cyclone girls outrace Spencer for team title, boys 6th at Storm Lake cross country meet

 STORM LAKE (Sept. 17) -- Four meets into the 2019 cross country season, the only team to outrace the Harlan Community girls is still Class 4A’s defending state champion, Southeast Polk.
 The fourth-ranked (3A) Cyclones earned their third team title of the year at Sunrise Pointe Golf Course on Tuesday, winning the Storm Lake Invite by a margin of 35-46 over fifth-ranked (3A) Spencer. MOC-Floyd Valley placed a distant third out of 13 teams with a score of 130.
 The boys’ half of the meet was won by MOC-FV 53-75 over Le Mars. HCHS placed sixth with a 174 despite competing without Trey Gross (ranked 22nd in 3A) and Reed Boardman for the second straight meet due to health reasons.
 The Cyclone girls achieved their 35 with five runners placing in the top 12. Senior Lucy Borkowski, newly-ranked at 29th in 3A, finished the five-kilometer race in 20:36 to place second to Spencer’s Elisa Fisher (ranked 26th) by 11 seconds. Borkowski has now placed in the top four of all four meets this year.
 A Cyclone pack of three followed in sixth, seventh and eighth, led by junior Liv Freund, who notched the best varsity placing of her career in 21:19. Kaia Bieker took seventh (21:27) and Abby Alberti was eighth (21:35). Also for HCHS, Abi Albertsen placed 12th, Brecken Van Baale was 17th and Olivia Anderson came in 23rd out 92 runners.
 The Cyclone boys earned a pair of medals as Brennon Munch placed 14th in 18:41 and Isaac Jones was 16th in 18:47. Mitchell Rueschenberg (31st) and Kaiden Milliken (50th) finished in the top half of the 100-runner field as well.