By Phil English
The goals were modest for the Northside girls cross country team when it came to the Horlick Rebel Invitational Saturday in Kenosha, Wis. The Mustangs wanted to build a pack and point to the end of the season. Mission accomplished.
The Northside girls took 20th place in the 23-team field on the Wayne E. Dannehl Cross Country National Course at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
The top five runners finished in a tight pack at 95th, 99th, 100th, 106th and 108th. That gave the girls a reason to be optimistic for bigger meets later this fall.
“I think as a team we did a really good job,” said junior Karlyn Gehring, Northside’s top finisher at 18:02.2 over the 2.5-mile course. “I was able to pace with the team really well. That’s something I didn’t do so well last year. Our team was close together the entire time, pushing each other. I’m not sure I would have been able to finish without them.”
Gehring was followed in the chute by junior Maggie Ivanova (18:07.3), freshman Taylor Provax (18:07.6), junior Su Yang (18:19.1) and seniors Bessie Nolan (18:22.8) and Yesenia Valdez (18:24.5). Junior Dava Batjargal followed in 112th (18:25.5) while senior Merita Bushi finished 140th (19:55.8).
For Ivanova, a first-year cross country runner, the meet accomplished many goals.
“I think since this is only the second meet of the year we were using this for a practice run to help us prepare for our later meets,” she said. “I was expecting it to be hard because of all the hills and all the people here. But I think we did a lot better than I’d hoped.”