By John RittenhouseA Hills-Beaver Creek High School senior earned his third consecutive trip to the state cross country meet with his performance during the Section 3A Championships in Adrian Thursday.Tyler Bush, a member of the H-BC-Ellsworth cross country program since he was in the sixth grade, punched his ticket to the Minnesota State Class A Cross Country Championships at St. Olaf College in Northfield by placing third individually at the section level.Teams that place first or second and the top 10 individual finishers in boys’ and girls’ varsity races at the section meet advance to state.Bush is no stranger to state competition, having earned all-state status (finishing in the top 25 individually) during his last two trips to Northfield. He was a member of the H-BC-E-Edgerton team that qualified for state in 2002. Bush qualified for the state classic individually last season by winning the section race. He placed 21st at state.Although Bush was unable to successfully defend his 2003 section championship, placing third with a time of 17:29 in Adrian wasn’t a bad effort."We’re excited that Tyler qualified again," said H-BC-E coach Tom Goehle. "He may not have run his best time at the section meet, but placing third under the meet conditions we had (a humid, wet course with consistent winds) and the fact that he was battling a cold says a lot about Tyler."Bush will attempt to make the all-state team for the third straight season when he runs in Northfield Saturday. The Class A boys’ race is set for 11 a.m.With Bush leading the way, H-BC-E turned in a strong performance as a team in Adrian.H-BC-E scored 137 points to place third in a 17-team field. Southwest Christian (50 points) and Luverne (137) topped the Patriots in the standings."Our goal was to finish in the top three as a team, and we did," Goehle said. "Considering we were running three seniors, one junior and three eighth-graders, we thought finishing in the top three would be fantastic."Seniors Kale Wiertzema and Derek Haak and eighth-graders Dustin Verhey and Tyler Paulson helped the Patriots reach their team goal.Wiertzema placed 17th in 18:13, Verhey 30th (28th as an adjusted place) in 18:56, Haak 40th (38th adjusted) in 19:12 and Paulson 53rd (51st adjusted) in 19:42 to round out the team scoring.Junior John Sandbulte and eighth-grader Brent Kramer ran without influencing the scoring for H-BC-E.Sandbulte finished 77th in 20:33. Kramer placed 81st in 20:41.The 2004 season came to an end for the H-BC-E girls, who placed eighth as a team with 180 points.Senior Cassi Tilstra made a bid to qualify for state before finishing 13th in 16:32.Sophomore Mya Mann placed 25th in 16:55, eighth-grader Rayna Sandoval 43rd in 17:30, sophomore Amanda Tilstra 44th in 17:33 and freshman Ashley Bucher 55th in 18:01 while making contributions to H-BC-E’s team effort.Sophomore Amanda Connors and freshman Jill Weitgenant placed 57th and 60th with respective 18:05 and 18:17 times without influencing the team scoring."We wanted our girls to finish in the top five, and they only missed it by 16 points," Goehle said. "We ran one senior, three sophomores, two freshmen and one eighth-grader, so placing eighth out of 17 teams isn’t so bad."Boys’ team standings: SWC 50, Luverne 70, H-BC-E 137, Adrian 160, Redwood Valley 163, Canby-Minneota-Lincoln HI 175, Jackson County Central 181, Windom 211, Springfield-Cedar Mountain 241, Renville County West 266, Southwest United 289, Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin 289, Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s-Sleepy Eye-New Ulm Cathedral 300, Martin County West 306, Westbrook-Walnut Grove-Red Rock Central 338, BOLD-Buffalo Lake-Hector 426, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 452.Girls’ standings: C-M-LH 77, Luverne 86, MCW 88, Adrian 113, RWV 164, ML-B-O 170, S-CM 172, H-BC-E 180, T-M-B 249, Windom 293, SM-SE-NUC 306, Murray County Central 312, JCC 341, Yellow Medicine East-Echo 350, BOLD-BL-H 394, W-WG-RRC 428, RCW 429.
