Millikin places fourth in large school meet

Area teams competed in different meets Thursday and Saturday.

Pekin 4th, 5th; Hillcrest 8th

IOWA CITY - Pekin and Hillcrest ran at Iowa City High's Bud Williams Cross-Country Invitational at the Kickers Soccer Complex Thursday.

Sophomore Ford Washburn of City High won the boys race in 16 minutes, 48 seconds, with Pekin's Brady Millikin fourth in 17:05. Iowa City Liberty won the boys team title and Dubuque Senior the girls. Lillian Schmidt of Dubuque Senior was the girls individual winner, finishing the five-kilometer course in 19:10.

The Pekin boys placed fifth of eight teams and the girls were fourth. Lauren Steigleder was the top Pekin girl at ninth in 21:01.

Hillcrest's Leah Bontrager was 26th with a season-best time of 21:45 in a very competitive field of mostly 4A schools and the Ravens were eighth.

Leah Bontrager led the team placing twenty-sixth.

GIRLS TEAM SCORES 1. Dubuque Senior 27, 2. Pleasant Valley 65, 3. Iowa City High 71, 4. Pekin 110, 5. Clear Creek-Amana 131, 6. Ottumwa 143, 7. Cedar Rapids Jefferson 207, 8. Hillcrest Academy 235

BOYS TEAM SCORES 1. Iowa City Liberty 39, 2. Iowa City High 51, 3. Clear Creek-Amana 95, 4. Cedar Rapids Jefferson 118, 5. Pekin 132, 6. Dubuque Senior 138, 7. Ottumwa 169, 8. Durant 247

Hillcrest - Boys: 61. Collin Miller 20:35, 64. Will Kolck 21:29, 65. Jorge Canchola 21:31;

Girls: 26. Leah Bontrager 21:45, 67. Julia Boller 26:53, 68. Kennedy Roth 27:57, 69. Taryn Leichty 29:26, 70. Hannah Chalupa 36:03

Pekin - Boys; 4. Brady Millikin 17:05, 14. Zach Wise 17:47, 33. Isaac Gentry 18:36, 37. Jaedon Wolver 18:47, 58. Gavyn Brown 20:02;

Girls: 9. Lauren Steigleder 21:01, 19. Lauren Dersheid 21:23, 32. Audrey Fariss 22:13, 35. Sarah Eubanks 22:23, 40. Mia Clark 22:58

Wildcats take 12th

WAVERLY - Columbus was 12th among 17 boys cross-country teams Saturday at the Steve Johnson Invitational at Wartburg College.

The Wildcats were competing in the Orange Division. Isaac Acosta and Damian Vergara led the team with 21st- and 26th-place finishes, respectively, in the 138-runner race. Freddy Vergara was the third Wildcat with 60th place. Damian Vergara had a PR of 52 seconds.

'This was a huge breakthrough race for him,” Riley said. 'This puts him among the best runners in our conference.”

The Wildcat boys record against 1A schools is 22-2 after bettering four 1A schools and losing to 1A schools in sixth-ranked Bellevue and unranked Valley Lutheran of Cedar Falls.

'We love the course, and it's a fun trip for the kids,” Riley said.

Columbus: 21. Isaac Acosta 17:53.0, 26. Damian Vergara 18:01.9, 60. Freddy Vergara 18:48.9, 88. Tim Hills-Carrier 19:37.3, 92. Tyler Humiston 19:40.7, 100. Mason Hills-Carrier 19:57.0, 109. Van Bawi 20:31.0.