By John Rittenhouse
Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth-Edgerton cross country coach Tom Goehle strayed from tradition during the first meet of the season in Mountain Lake Wednesday, Aug. 31.
In the past, Goehle used the Wolverine Invitational as a tune-up session for the rest of the season by entering his runners in junior varsity events only.
By fielding a five-runner squad boys' varsity squad on the 31st, Goehle broke tradition, and he probably was glad that he did.
The Patriots turned in a solid performance by placing fourth in a 20-team field with 141 points.
Mounds View won the boys' team title with 72 points. Blue Earth Area and Fairmont placed second and third respectively.
H-BC-E-E also fielded complete boys' and girls junior varsity teams for the meet. The girls finished second with 79 points. The boys placed fourth with 145 points.
"I was happy with the way we finished in both the boys' and girls' events," Goehle said. "They have some really quality teams at this meet, and I think we showed what kind of depth we had by placing the way we did. I thought we ran really well, timewise, for it being our first meet of the year."
Tyler Bush got off to a strong start for the season by placing fourth in the boys' varsity race in 16:37.
Todd Alberty finished 24th in 17:51, Zach Hadler 30th in 18:10, Lee Jackson 37th in 18:30 and Kale Wiertzema 46th in 18:56.
Cassi Tilstra won the girls' junior varsity race in 5:43.
Brittney Rozeboom finished eighth in 6:04, Amanda Tilstra 12th in 6:11, Mya Mann 14th in 6:15, Erika Fransen 44th in 6:44 and Rayne Sandoval 61st in 7:11.
Greg Van Batavia paced the junior varsity boys by placing fourth in 11:34.
Kerry Fink finished 26th in 12:47, Devin DeBoer 28th in 12:52, Derek Haak 43rd in 13:11, John Sandbulte 44th in 13:12, Adam Finke 51st in 13:24, Michael Bos 56th in 13:32, Jared Drenth 80th in 14:32, Grant Hoogendoorn 83rd in 14:42 and Justin Hinks 103rd in 18:02.