Cross country: Ruby Acker leads Princeton girls to second-place in Coates Invite

Typically, Princeton sophomores Ruby Acker and Payton Frueh are a strong duo for the Tigresses on a cross country course.

On Saturday, Acker had to run solo at Princeton’s Gary Coates Invitational at Zearing Park with Frueh missing the race due to a pig show.

Despite missing her running partner, Acker ran to an area-best finish as she took fourth place in 21:14.

She finished behind repeat champion Elly Heineke, of Lowpoint-Washburn/Roanoke-Benson, who won in 19:45.93, and her teammate, Kyndre Delagrange, who was runner-up in 20:17.07.

“It feels great,” Acker said. “It was definitely an improvement from last year, which feels awesome. One of the girls on our team who I usually run with wasn’t here, so I was trying to do it for her. And my junior high cross country coach was here as well, so I was trying to do it for him as well as my family and parents.”

Acker said it was a bit different racing without Frueh.

“She usually is right with me so we try to push each other throughout the race,” Acker said. “When she’s here, we’re racing each other but also helping each other go. If one of us falls behind, we tell each other, ‘You got it.’ So it’s great having her here.”

Acker said her time was a little slower than she was hoping to run, but with the heat and sun, she was still happy with it. The sophomore improved eight places over last year’s 12th.

“I think definitely my teammates’ encouragement, my coach’s encouragement and doing some more mileage in practice and I trained in the offseason more, so I think that helped a lot,” Acker said about her jump in place this season.

Princeton’s Alexandra Waca placed seventh in 22:53.9 and teammate Natalie Meyer (23:41.61) was 14th to help the Tigresses finish second as a team with 80 points. Mercer County won with 67. Amboy co-op (139) was seventh.

Maddie Althaus led the Clippers as she finished 17th in 24:06.42.

The boys race also saw a repeat champion in Mendota senior Anthony Kelson, who pulled away from the field to win in 16:37.2.

The Tiger duo of sophomore Tyler VandeVenter, who finished in 17:34.93, and junior Augustus Swanson, who ran a 17:40.26, placed fifth and sixth, respectively.

“It feels really good,” VandeVenter said. “I was hoping for top 20. My friend, Augustus, he was running fourth. The last meet at Oregon I came behind him by two seconds. I thought if I stayed with him, I’d do pretty well. He got in front of me, but at the end I was able to pass him.”

VandeVenter said he enjoyed running in the strong field at the Coates, which along with Kelson at the top included Fieldcrest’s Caleb Krischel in second and La Salle-Peru’s Griffin Hammers in third.

“I actually love it,” VandeVenter said about the solid competition. “I love racing people who are better than me so I can use that for a faster running experience. If they’re in front of me, it makes me want to go faster because I want to win. The competition was amazing. It was a fun race.”

Henry Nichols paced Amboy as he placed ninth in 18:00.25, while Joseph Caracheo (20:15.65) led Hall in 30th.