HCHS girls avenge Glenwood to win LC Invite

 COUNCIL BLUFFS (Sept. 12) -- The Harlan Community cross country girls placed five runners in the top nine to score a 31 and win the team crown at Saturday’s Lewis Central Invitational.
 Due to wet grounds at Iowa Western Community College, the meet was pushed back to 11 a.m. and only the varsity races were held.
 The HCHS boys finished sixth out of 11 teams with a score of 157 and the AHSTW girls - competing without two of their top runners - placed 11th with a 223.
 The Cyclone girls, who finished three points behind Glenwood at the AL Lynx Invite Sept. 5 - also at IWCC - and dropped a spot below the Rams in last week’s Class 3A rankings (Glenwood 5th, HCHS 6th), earned their revenge on Saturday.
 Junior Kaia Bieker led the pack of Cyclones with a third-place effort of 20:35 and senior Brecken Van Baale took fourth in 20:39. The next group of HCHS girls saw Liv Freund, Abi Albertsen and Ellie Gross place seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively, in a span of 21 seconds.
 The Cyclone boys, who were running without No. 3 runner Ian Shelton, finished middle of the pack Saturday, led by senior Trey Gross in ninth place. Gross entered the meet ranked 11th among 3A individuals. Mitchell Rueschenberg (29th) and Reed Boardman (30th) were the next-best HCHS finishers.
 Holly Hoepner assumed the lead runner role for the Lady Vikes and placed 21st out of 74 runners. Kailey Jones was 33rd and Jade Draman came in 37th. The Viking boys raced just two runners in Caleb Hatch (63rd) and Bryce Mourick (75th).