By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth cross country teams made their 2001 debut at the Wolverine Invitational in Mountain Lake Wednesday, Aug. 29.
As has become a tradition, Patriot coach Tom Goehle limited his runners to junior varsity competition for the first meet of the year.
"We do it (run at the junior varsity level) to ease into the season," Goehle said. "I was really happy with the way things went because the kids gave a spirited performance. They ran really hard. It was an excellent way to start the year."
Sixteen H-BC-E boys ran in Mountain Lake, where they dominated the team competition by winning the junior varsity title with 22 points.
Brad Haak, Tyler Bush and Lee Jackson led the charge by placing first, second and third with respective 10:58, 11:23 and 11:51 efforts during the two-mile event.
Matt Buck and Greg Van Batavia capped the team scoring by finishing sixth and ninth with respective 11:58 and 12:07 times.
Rounding out the Patriot boys are Kale Wiertzema (16th in 12:25), Nathan Fick (18th in 12:38), Devin DeBoer (19th in 12:47), Nathan Mahone (20th in 12:48), Derek Haak (37th in 13:35), John Sandbulte (39th in 13:49), Paul Jess (42nd in 13:54), Kerry Fink (50th in 14:09), Jared Drenth (73rd in 14:49), Adam Finke (85th in 15:45) and Justin Hinks (107th in 19:14).
The Patriot girls placed fourth in a 19-team field with 124 points.
Cassi Tilstra set the pace for H-BC-E by finishing second in 5:58 in the one-mile race.
Brittney Rozeboom, Becky Broesder, Amanda Tilstra and Stacy Bush contributed to the team effort by placing 11th, 27th, 29th and 55th with respective 6:24, 6:42, 6:44 and 7:03 times.
Kim Janssen placed 93rd in 9:25 without contributing to the scoring.