Baker accepts challenge, bests field at O-M

ORIENT — Creston’s Brielle Baker found herself in a spot she hasn’t been in much this season at Monday’s Orient-Macksburg Cross Country Invitational.

The Panther sophomore handled the challenge of being a frontrunner well in winning the race in 21 minutes, 45 second Monday at Lake Orient Recreation Area.

“This was a good test for her to go out and challenge herself,” said Creston coach Pat Schlapia. “She was chasing the gator right from the get-go.”

She delivered when counted on in winning by 31 seconds over CAM’s Katlyn Holaday and by 59 seconds over Diagonal’s Maddie Lohmann.

“It was just nice to see her go out like that,” Schlapia said. “There was some tough individual competition.”

Baker cruised from the front, easily putting the pack well in the rear view mirror.

“She handled it real well,” Schlapia said. “She kept bearing down. She bore down and ran as tough as nails.”

Rachel Shepherd was ninth in 24:30, while Allivea Skarda was 10th in 24:31. They were able to cut the gap from Baker to under two minutes.

“That’s good to see with that,” Schlapia said. “That’s one thing we’ve been harping on the girls is we need to close that gap between Brielle and the second girl. Brielle’s not going to slow down. We need to keep improving ourselves. Having Rachel and Allivea within 2:45, that was good to see.”

Creston’s girls claimed the team title for the fourth straight year. Schlapia ran six girls on varsity. He noted how all six ran well.

Five of the six Panther girls on varsity medaled. The top 15 took home medals.

“It was a total team effort getting that plaque again,” Schlapia said.

On the JV side, Rachel Wignall was victorious.

“That was quite a sight to see her come across first in the JV,” Schlapia said. “She was excited about that.”

Dohmann continues to grow in her first season out for cross country.

“We’re proud of the way she ran,” said Diagonal coach Matt Warren. “She just keeps improving.”

Dohmann closed well.

“She was a little closer to the girls ahead of her than she was last week at Creston,” Warren said.

The goal is steady growth heading into the home stretch of the season.

“We just try to keep building on each meet,” Warren said. “We just need to come out and compete, just try to do better.”

The meet was a bit of a different one for East Union. Typically they have Monday’s open for practice before racing on Tuesday.

“The biggest thing is we’ve always had a day before to get ready,” said East Union coach Rich Bryson.

The Eagle girls were led by Jena Proffitt’s fifth-place finish.

Molly McNeil placed 14th and Kate Sutton was 23rd.

“Molly McNeil ran lights out,” Bryson said. “She did a great job.”

McNeil was just the latest Eagle to step up.

The Eagles took another step towards their goal of performing their best at the end of the season.

“We’re looking to get some consistency,” Bryson said. “Hopefully the consistency will come. We want to get close to start peaking in a couple of weeks.”

Emma Harper was back in limited duty after missing the Creston meet with an illness.

Bryson liked what he saw from her in a race she ended just past the one-mile mark.

“She felt really good,” Bryson said. “That was the idea to get a mile, a mile and a half in and see how she feels.”

Orient-Macksburg’s girls were led by Cortney Gross’ 25th-place finish.

Creston’s boys were led by Ben Irr’s second-place finish.

Irr stayed in the lead pack throughout and passed West Central Valley’s Tyler McKibbin later in the race.

“It was a nice race for Ben,” Schlapia said. “He challenged the two West Central Valley boys most of the race. He was hanging close in that third spot for the mile. He had a nice second to third mile. He was able to close the gap and able to overcome him and get second.”

Isaac Wignall was Creston’s other medalist, placing 14th.

The Panther boys were fourth as a team. Earlham won with 52 points. West Central Valley was second with 55 points. Nodaway Valley’s JV team was third with 85 points, followed by the Panthers with 105 points.

Nodaway Valley’s JV boys were led Joshua Baudler’s seventh-place finish.

East Union’s boys were led by Cole Nelson’s 29th-place finish.

Both Creston teams benefited from the run early in the week coming off the home meet last week and Homecoming festivities.

“This was something we needed to get back and get refocused at the task at hand,” Schlapia said.

Creston’s next meet is Thursday at Perry.

“It was nice to run this meet before we go to Perry Thursday,” Schlapia said.

Girls team results — 1. Creston 45; 2. East Union 90; 3. West Central Valley 93; 4. Exira-Elk Horn-Kimbalton 117.

Creston results — 1. Brielle Baker 21:45; 9. Rachel Shepherd 24:30; 10. Allivea Skarda 24:31; 12. Lexie Little 24:57; 13. Brittany Linch 25:11; 17. Danielle Castillo 25:55.

Creston JV results — 1. Rachel Wignall 27:00; 3. Cora Green 28:00; 4. Sydney Pantini 28:17; 5. Emma Berning 28:28.

Diagonal results — 3. Maddie Lohmann 22:52; 30. Grace Hall 28:27.

East Union results — 5. Jena Proffitt 23:31; 14. Molly McNeil 25:22; 23. Kate Sutton 27:17; 28. Sidney McFee 27:58; 29. Taylor Miller 28:13; 38. Kendra Kirkland 37:02.

Orient-Macksburg results — 25. Cortney Gross 27:38; 37. Cameo Walker 31:25.

Boys team results — 1. Earlham 52; 2. West Central Valley 55; 3. Nodaway Valley JV 85; 4. Creston 105; 5. Audubon 117; 6. Bedford 165.

Creston results — 2. Ben Irr 18:33; 14. Isaac Wignall 20:03; 24. Levi Hitz 21:17; 32. Dylan Linch 22:04; 33. Hunter Fry 22:16; 39. Devin Baker 23:28.

Creston JV results — 3. Dawson Smith 24:01; 4. Ashton Wills 24:10; 5. Isaac Jacobson 24:56; 7. Isaac Ralston 33:34.

Diagonal result — 54. Folk Sanwanwarawut 41:11.

East Union results — 29. Cole Nelson 21:46; 43. Alex Evans 25:28; 53. Dawson Goodrich 29:23.

Nodaway Valley JV results — 7. Joshua Baudler 19:17; 12. Joel Blazek 19:54; 19. Jesse Johnson 21:00; 23. Dustin Finck 21:11; 25. Austin Lundy 21:22; 46. Chandler Green 26:24; 47. Dakota Earnst 26:39.

Orient-Macksburg results — 40. Andrew Hribal 23:53; Vinh Nguyen 27:24.