By John Rittenhouse
Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth's first appearance at the Red Rock Conference Cross County Meet proved to be a rewarding experience for the Patriots.
H-BC-E won three boys' team titles and five varsity runners made the All-RRC Team based on their performances during the meet.
"Any way you look at it, it was a great day for our kids," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "Both our boys and girls ran well. They were really excited (about their performances), and they should be."
The top 10 individuals in varsity competition make the All-RRC team, and Brittney Rozeboom made it for the Patriot girls. Rozeboom placed 10th in 17:35 as H-BC-E's lone entry in the race.
Four Patriot boys made the All-RRC squad for an H-BC-E team that ran away with the team championship with 27 points.
Adrian (62 points), Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin (64) and Southwest Star Concept-Sioux Valley Round Lake-Brewster (73) capped the field.
Brad Haak, Tyler Bush, Greg Van Batavia and Kale Wiertzema ran their way onto the All-RRC roster. Haak was first in 17:07, Bush fifth in 18:13, Van Batavia sixth in 18:31 and Wiertzema eighth in 18:47.
Nathan Fick placed 13th in 19:05 to round out the team scoring for H-BC-E.
Matt Buck and Lee Walraven placed 15th and 19th in 19:30 and 19:53 without contributing to the team effort.
Top 10 performances by Nathan Mahone, Derek Haak, Paul Jess and Jared Drenth lifted the H-BC-E boys to a team title (15 points overall) in the junior varsity race.
Mahone and Haak placed first and second with 15:45 and 15:55 times, while Jess and Drenth placed fifth and seventh in 17:25 and 18:00.
Justin Hinks capped the team scoring by placing 11th in 21:09.
The Patriots won the boys' junior high team crown with 29 counters.
Devin DeBoer, Kerry Fink, John Sandbulte and Adam Finke led the way by placing second in 6:36, fourth in 6:41, sixth in 6:45 and ninth in 6:59 respectively.
Grant Hoogendoorn placed 14th in 7:17 to pad H-BC-E's team tally.
Blake Crawford finished 20th in 9:03 without influencing the scoring.
H-BC-E's Stacy Bush placed seventh in the girls' junior high race in 8:11, while Becky Broesder was second in the girlsÕ junior varsity event with a time of 16:08.
H-BC-E will field complete varsity teams for the Section 3A Championships set for Thursday, Oct. 25, in Tracy. The girls' race begins at 4:30 p.m., with the boys' race to follow.