By John RittenhouseA Hills-Beaver Creek High School junior earned the right to compete in the state cross country meet with a strong performance during the Section 3A Cross Country Championships at the Adrian Area Country Club Thursday.Tyler Bush, a member of the H-BC-Ellsworth-Edgerton program, will run at his second state meet Saturday.Bush became one of 10 individual qualifiers for the state meet by placing second among boys at the section event.Bush ran a 17:01 in Adrian, placing second in a 122-runner field behind Canby-Minneota-Lincoln HI’s Chad Janiszeski, who won the section championship with a time of 16:27.By placing second in the section as an individual, Bush will make his second consecutive appearance at the Minnesota State High School Cross Country Championships in Northfield. Bush will take part in the Class A boys’ varsity race at 1 p.m. Saturday.Bush was a member of the H-BC-E-E boys’ team that won a section title and placed sixth at the state meet as a team.Bush was the leader of the squad. He made the All-State Class A Team by finishing 15th individually at the meet."I was really happy with the way things went (in Adrian)," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "I was happy with Tyler and the way he ran, and I was happy with our boys’ team performance overall."The Patriots were unable to successfully defend their 2002 section title, but they did fare well in the team competition.H-BC-E-E placed sixth out of 17 complete teams with 200 points.Strong runs by Kale Wiertzema and Dustin Verhey helped the Patriots finish sixth as a team.Wiertzema finished 25th in 18:21. Verhey, a seventh-grader, placed 51st in 19:16.Todd Alberty and Derek Haak capped the team scoring for H-BC-E-E by finishing 62nd and 64th with respective 19:38 and 19:47 times.Patriots John Sandbulte and Adam Finke finished 69th and 94th with respective 20:00 and 20:49 times without contributing to the team effort.The H-BC-E-E girls placed seventh out of 15 complete teams with 170 points at the section meet."I was extremely happy with our girls," Goehle said. "The best finish we’ve ever had for the girls at the section meet was 13th place, and there were a lot of years when we didn’t have a complete team. To have them finish seventh and be competitive was outstanding. I was really happy for the girls."Cassi Tilstra set the pace for the girls by placing 23rd in 16:29.Mya Mann was not far behind Tilstra, placing 27th in 16:57.Amanda Tilstra placed 40th in 17:20, Jill Weitgenant 45th in 17:25 and Rayna Sandoval 51st in 17:38 to round out the scoring for the Patriots.Here is a look at the final team standings from the Section 3A meet.Boys’ standings: SWC 62, Luverne 86, Redwood Valley 103, Adrian 152, Jackson County Central 189, H-BC-E-E 200, Windom Area 204, C-M-LH 208, Murray County Central 310, Springfield-Cedar Mountain Comfrey 311, Yellow Medicine East 314, BOLD 314, Pipestone Area 319, Martin County West 324, Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin 331, Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s 429.Girls’ standings: C-M-HL 49, Luverne 67, MCW 86, JCC 123, S-CM-C 164, Adrian 166, H-BC-E-E 170, RWV 234, Windom Area 251, MCC 268, ML-B-O 304, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 309, YME 314, BOLD 315, SESM 366
