Columbus boys and girls both take fourth at the Mt. Pleasant Invitational

The Columbus boys? and girls? cross-country teams both finished fourth in Class A at Tuesday?s Mt. Pleasant Invite.

Juniors Eli Sents and Efrain Barajas placed fifth and sixth, respectively, to lead the Columbus boys, who totaled 131 points and finished behind Mediapolis, Wapello and Van Buren. Sents finished in 18:01, and Barajas crossed the finish line one second later. Freshman Josh Keller came in 28

^th

in 19:28, and senior Mitchell Roush was 45

^th

in 20:41. Junior Dalton Howell rounded out the scoring with his 47

^th

-place finish in 20:44.

Freshman Curtis Fuller finished 24

^th

in the junior varsity boys? race in 21:59, and freshman Adrian Santos was 35

^th

in 22:46. Senior Omar Benitez came in 37

^th

in 22:48, and sophomore Andy Smith was 59

^th

in 25:40.

Senior Caitlin Chaney took ninth place in 17:17 to lead the Wildcat girls, who totaled 90 points and finished behind Mediapolis, Lone Tree and Wapello. Sophomore Taylor Hills crossed the finish line nine seconds later in 11

^th

place. Sophomore Claire Hamilton came in 20

^th

in 18:18, and freshman Grace Chapman was 24

^th

in 18:50. Freshman Ashley Canny rounded out the scoring with her 26

^th

-place finish in 18:56. Junior Yvette Aguilar finished 32

^nd

in 19:15, and junior Rebeca Neri was 47

^th

in 20:10.

Junior Jessica Morales finished 15

^th

in the junior varsity girls? race in 21:37 to win a medal. Freshman Gaby Villagrana came in 18

^th

in 21:59, and junior Alma Frias finished 19

^th

in 22:09.

?It wasn?t our best meet, but we had some kids have excellent effort,? said Columbus head coach Steve Riley, who noted that Hills showed a big improvement since last week?s Fort Madison meet and Keller ran his best high school race. ?They?re all getting better.?