By John Rittenhouse
Tuesday proved to be a good day for a pair of Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth boys' cross country teams.
Competing at the Dragon Invitational in Adrian, the Patriot varsity and junior high boys' squads came away with team titles at meet's end.
The varsity boys scored 47 points to nip Luverne, which tallied 48 counters. Adrian was third with 65 points.
The junior high boys secured the top three individual places while winning their team competition with 23 points.
All in all, it was a good day for the Patriots.
"We performed well as teams, and the kids ran well individually," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle.
Brad Haak set the pace for the varsity boys by winning the race with a time of 18:46.
Matt Buck (sixth in 20:46), Nathan Fick (11th in 21:13), Kale Wiertzema (14th in 21:37) and Lee Walraven (15th in 21:46) made contributions to the winning team tally.
Paul Jess finished 24th in 25:34 without influencing the scoring.
Nathan Mahone, Devin DeBoer and Kerry Fink helped the boys' junior high team secure a title by placing first, second and third with respective 6:21, 6:22 and 6:35 times.
John Sandbulte and Adam Finke placed eighth and ninth in 7:09 and 7:14 to cap the team scoring.
Grant Hoogendoorn and Justin Hinks finished 12th and 19th in 7:48 and 10:11 without influencing the scoring.
Patriots Amanda Tilstra and Stacy Bush ran in the girls' junior high race, placing sixth and ninth with respective 7:39 and 8:11 efforts.
Brittney Rozeboom and Becky Broesder placed third and seventh with times of 20:44 and 21:35 in the girls' junior varsity race.
Jared Drenth placed 14th with a time of 18:58 in the boys' junior varsity run.
"This was a good starting point for us," Goehle said. "For a lot of these kids, these were their longest races of the season. We found out what we need to improve on, and we'll work hard on doing it."
H-BC-E runs at the West Lyon Invitational at the Meadow Acres Country Club near Larchwood, Iowa, Monday.