Five Medal At West Holt XC Invite Thursday

Five Antelope County runners finished in the top 20 at the fiercely competitive West Holt Invite on Thursday. There were 78 runners in the girls race and 103 in the boys contest.

Alison Stineman of Elkhorn Valley crossed the finish line in 21:13 for 5th place, followed by Emma Bixler of Neligh-Oakdale in 8th with a time of 21:31.

In the boys race, Hunter Bennett and Brayden Effle of EV earned 7th and 8th place, with times of 18:02 and 18:10, respectively. Cole Belitz of Neligh-Oakdale ran a time of 18:28 for 12th place.

N-O Coach Rick Eickholt said Emma Bixler and Cole Belitz set course records for Neligh-Oakdale. He said Bixler's time was 19 seconds faster than the record previously held by Kasi Grosserode, and Belitz ran 16 seconds faster than Tyler Pedersen's record.

"I was pleased with everyone's efforts, especially the boys team performance," Eickholt said. "I'd like to give a special shout out to Christian Carothers. Don't let anyone ever say that cross country is a noncontact sport. Christian was hit in the head with a tree branch and put a large gash in the top of his head, causing him to have to momentarily stop to wipe blood from his face and eyes."

For team standings, the Neligh-Oakdale girls were 9th overall, the Elkhorn Valley boys were 6th, and the Neligh-Oakdale boys were 7th.

Neligh-Oakdale's Madi Grosserode was 34th, Hailey Bixler 42nd and Rachel Higgins 48th. Audrey Chvala of EV was 77th. 

For the N-O boys, Griffin Claussen finished in 26th, Christian Carothers 28th, Cameron Wilkinson 31st, Jose Luna 64th, and Logan McConnell 69th. For EV, Isaiah Greenhalgh was 32nd, followed by Dillon Stewart in 34th, and Damian Smith 39th.

Both teams will be back in action next Friday when Boyd County hosts the Niobrara Valley Conference meet.