Bureau County runners medal in TRAC cross country

WALNUT — The Princeton Tigresses finished third in Tuesday’s Three Rivers Conference cross country meet at the Walnut Park District fields.

Junior Lexi Bohms led the way with a third-place finish with a time of 21:35 and senior Hannah Muehlschlegel was 11th (22:55), both earning all-conference recognition. They were joined by St. Bede’s Jaelyn Weber (14th, 23:05) and Bureau Valley junior Elijah House, who was eighth (17:37) in the boys race.

“I’m decently happy. It was a hot day and this course has a couple hills, so overall I thought pretty good with my run today,” Bohms said. “I wanted to get at least under fifth and I did. Last year, we didn’t have a normal season, obviously, and I’m way ahead of where I was freshman season to where I am now.”

Bohms joked she felt liked quitting on some of the hills on the course, and “If I didn’t love this sport, I wouldn’t be able to run it.”

Muehlschlegel was pleased to medal in conference.

“I can always do better, but it was a good race. We’ve been here a couple times and I think we all did pretty well. I think for the most part we saw improvement, so I’m pretty proud about that.

Muehlschlegel said the hills on the course “kind of sneak on you.”

Bohms and Muehlschlegel said it’s nice to be able to push one another.

“She’s improved a lot since last year, too. She’s not that far behind me,” Bohms said. “In practices we run together and train together. I see her kicking in, I know that means I need to, too.”

“She’s a great one to have at front of the pack and she’s always fun to watch,” Muehlschlegel said.

Also contributing to Princeton’s third-place finish were Kiana Brokaw (16th, 23:20), Claire Grey (41st, 26:55), Hope Crouch (47th, 28:01) and Ella Grey (58th, 32:21).

PHS coach Pat Hodge said the third-place finish was a nice accomplishment for his team.

“I thought our top three girls ran very well,” he said. “Lexi beat some girls that had beaten her earlier this season and was joined by Hannah as all-conference runners. Kiana had perhaps the best run of anyone on our team today by having a season’s best performance - just missing out on the top 15. Claire had a solid performance as our No. 4 girl.”

Amalie Graversgaard, a foreign exchange student from Denmark, led Bureau Valley, placing 21st (24:03). Also for the Storm, Darla Kepner was 34th (26:00), Jillian Hulsing 44th (27:46) and Allison Larkin 52nd (29:41).

For St. Bede, which finished fourth as a team, Madelyn Torrance was 18th (23:43), Macy Zeglis 31st (25:30), Aleda Hoogland 33rd (25:56) and Abbie George (48th, 28:16).

Sherrard (43) won the girls meet followed by E-P (53) and PHS (73) in the six-team field. Race winner Olivia Thomsen of Orion (19:45) finished more than a minute and a half ahead of the field.

House liked running on the Storm’s home course.

“It kind of helps knowing the course a little bit. I was more excited about having a lot of competition,” he said.

While he wasn’t unable to run down the personal best that he wanted, House felt like he was right on target.

“There was a Morrison kid I had in mind and I wanted to stay next to two Newman kids and make sure I beat one Kewanee kid,” he said.

Miguel Jones led St. Bede with an 18th-place finish (18:28), while Princeton’s Christian Yepsen placed 22nd (18:54), BV’s Ben Roth was 25th (19:00).

Also, Mack Williams was 35th (19:42) and Gabriel Glass 53rd (21:02) for PHS, Henry Orteza 42nd (19:59) and Greyson Marincic 48th (20:18) for St. Bede, and Payton Walowski 52nd (20:59) for BV.

Riverdale (19) ran away with the boys title with the top three runners, led by Tommy Murray (16:10), and claiming five of the top seven places.

BV finished seventh (177) and PHS 10th (209) in the 11-team field.