By John RittenhouseThe Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth-Edgerton girls’ cross country team turned in a strong performance at the Red Rock Conference meet in Slayton Tuesday.After competing as an incomplete team at the event for a number of years, the H-BC-E-E girls nearly won the team championship before settling for a second-place performance.H-BC-E-E scored 41 points at the meet, finishing second to Adrian, which led the field with 34 points."This was the first time we had a full team at this meet for a number of years, and I was extremely proud of the way they ran," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "Their performance as a team was phenomenal, and to have four girls place in the Top-10 individually is awesome."Placing in the Top-10 at the RRC meet earns a position on the all-conference roster, and Mya Mann, Cassi Tilstra, Amanda Tilstra and Jill Weitgenant accomplished that in Slayton.Mann placed fourth in 17:02, Cassi Tilstra sixth in 17:12, Amanda Tilstra eighth in 17:14 and Weitgenant ninth in 17:19.Rayna Sandoval also helped the Patriots placing second by finishing 20th in 18:35.The H-BC-E-E boys placed third in the varsity field with 85 points. Southwest Christian (21) and Adrian (61) topped the Patriots.Tyler Bush won an RRC title by winning the race in 16:53, locking up a spot on the All-RRC roster along with teammate Kale Wiertzema, who finished eighth in 17:54.Todd Alberty placed 24th in 19:29, Derek Haak 25th in 19:32 and John Sandbulte 31st in 20:49) to round out H-BC-E-E’s team performance.H-BC-E-E’s Dustin Verhey emerged as the RRC junior varsity champion after winning his race with a time of 15:31.Adam Finke (sixth in 16:39), Devin DeBoer (seventh in 16:44), Tom Janssen (ninth in 17:15), Jared Drenth (11th in 17:53) and Paul Deleoncepeda (12th in 18:30) also ran in the junior varsity race for H-BC-E-E, which placed second behind Adrian in the team standings.H-BC-E-E also placed second behind Adrian in the junior high standings with 48 points.Cody Penning led the Patriots in the junior high event by placing ninth in 6:56.Grant Hoogendoorn (10th in 7:01), Luke Tiesler (12th in 7:12), Stephan Harsma (13th in 7:13), Derek Drenth (19th in 7:50) and B.J. Kruse (23rd in 8:03) also competed in the junior high event.H-BC-E-E will compete at the Section 3A meet in Adrian Thursday, Oct. 23. The boys’ varsity race starts at 4 p.m. with the girls’ race to follow at 4:45.
