Fort Madison boys can't get out of tough Solon qualifier

Dennis finishes 35th for the Lady Hounds, who take 9th place

BY PCC STAFF

SOLON - Despite a year where the Bloodhound boys captured several cross-country titles with smart team running, the neither the boys or girls Bloodhounds couldn't get out of the Solon qualifier Thursday afternoon.

Sophomore Will Gager turned in the best performance for Fort Madison with a 21st-place finish at 17:44.9. Gager and junior Anthony Barnes went back and forth all year battling for the top Hound finish at meets. Barnes was just behind Gager at 25th place with an 18:02.3.

The top 15 runners at each qualifying meet qualify for state and the top 3 teams at each qualifier have all runners participate at state.

Clear Creek-Amana and Center Point-Urbana each had three of the top six runners in the event with Clear-Creek Amana winning the team competition with 41 points overall, including four of the top seven runners.

Center Point-Urbana was second with 44 points.

The other scoring runners for the boys were Hayden Wolfe who came in at 43rd and then Tate Settles and Austin Miller finished 51st and 52nd overall.

Other Hound runners competing were Alex Steffensmeier (62nd) and Ben Theile (76th).

Fort Madison finished 8th overall with 192 points.

In the girls run, sophomore Katie Dennis finished 35th overall to lead Fort Madison with a time of 21:42.2, followed by senior Maddy McVey with a time of 22:11.7.

The girls finished with 278 points for ninth place overall.

Other scoring runners for Fort Madison included senior Anna Kester 65th overall; freshman Marquel Warner, 67th overall; and freshman Mylah Blanchard who finished 69th overall. Freshman Lauren Otte was 71st and Junior Lilly Scott was 74th.