Rees wins Washington invite

Andrew Rees crested the final hill of the mapped out cross-country course at Washington Golf and Country Club. As he raced downhill toward the chute, there were no opposition jerseys blocking his view of the finish line.

Rees pulled away from WACO’s Jude Dykstra as the pair headed into the final section of the boys race at the Washington cross-country Invitational. The Demons senior emerged into the last long straightaway alone, and cruised to a first place at his team’s home meet.

“My goal was just to stick with (Dykstra) because he beat me previously this year,” Rees said. “So, that was kind of my goal going forward, and then he started pulling away with a mile left, but I had to keep pushing, and then he started falling back a little bit.”

Rees’ mark of 16:11.1 was his best time of the season thus far and propelled him into the top 15 runners in 3A. It was also his first individual victory of the season.

The Demons finished third place as a team with 66 points. Ethan Hotchkiss was the second best Washington runner, finishing 11th 17:31.1. Jack Shepherd was right behind him at 17:37.8.

Fort Madison led the team scoring with 29 points. Behind Dykstra’s performance, WACO finished second with 59 points. Garrett Landau took ninth overall at 17:10.6 Locken Henderson placed 10th at 17:23.06.

Both the Warriors boys and girls teams also ran Tuesday’s race while wearing orange headbands and wristbands in remembrance of Washington student Carson Ryan. Ryan passed away in a hunting accident over the weekend.

  Buy Photo

Fairfield took sixth place in the boys race with 145 points behind Marion in fourth place (104 points) and Keokuk in fifth (143). Burlington (179), Lone Tree (217) and Highland (271) rounded out the team scores.

Iris Dahl also put in a strong performance for Washington on its home course. The senior took second overall in the girls race at 19:14.3.

Washington took third place as a team with 66 points. Emma Horak placed 10th overall at 20:55.04. Angeline Anderson finished 17th at 22:29.1.

  Buy Photo

Fort Madison’s Avery Rump won the race at 18:45.1 and helped lead the Bloodhounds to first place in team scoring with 38 points. WACO also took second in the girls race with 59 points. Josie Dykstra (19:51.5) and Macie Carter (20:44.1) took fifth and seventh place, respectively.

Marion finished fourth with 104 points. Keokuk (143 points), Fairfield (145), Burlington (179), Lone Tree (217) and Highland (271) rounded out the team scoring.

While several Union area teams competed in Washington, Mount Pleasant traveled to the Williamsburg Invitational. Avery Fedler continued her dominant freshman season, taking third place in the girls race with a time of 18:55.7.

Albia’s McKenna Montgomery won the race at 18:07.2. Mount Pleasant finished No. 16 in team scoring out of 21 teams in the girls event.

The Mount Pleasant boys' team took 17th out of 25 teams. Silas Hulett was the Panthers’ best finisher at 12th overall with a time of 17:13.8.