By John RittenhouseThe Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth junior high boys made a bid to win a team championship at the Cardinal Invitational staged at the Adrian Area Country Club Thursday.The Patriot boys battled it out with Adrian in the team competition, with the Dragons edging H-BC-E by a 24-33 margin.Solid efforts turned in by Tyler Paulson, Dustin Verhey and Brent Kramer led the Patriots to their second-place effort as a team.Paulson placed third in 5:43, Verhey fourth in 5:52 and Kramer fifth in 5:53.Luke Tiesler and Andrew Hoyme rounded out the team’s scoring by placing 14th and 15th in 6:22 and 6:24 respectively.Tyler Kruid (16th in 6:26), Tom Nolte (17th in 6:35), Alex Angelo (20th in 6:42), Derek Drenth (22nd in 6:57), Karic Wiertzema (26th in 7:06), Sam Luze (29th in 7:20) and B.J. Kruse (30th in 7:40) ran without influencing the team effort.Two H-BC-E runners competed in the boys’ varsity, girls’ varsity and girls’ junior high races at the meet.Ashley Bucher turned in the top effort in varsity action by placng 24th in 17:45. Jill Weitgenant placed 37th in 18:22.Grant Hoogendoorn and Jared Drenth finished 55th and 56th in 21:38 and 22:00 in the boys’ varsity race.Courtney Hoogendoorn and Brooke Tilstra placed sixth and 11th in 7:08 and 7:29 in the girls’ junior high race.
