Wildcats open season in Mount Vernon

MOUNT VERNON, Iowa -- Columbus Community?s cross-country team opened its season Tuesday night at the Mount Vernon Invitational, with senior Josh Keller placing 12th in the mostly Class 3A-4A field.

Keller, a two-time state meet runner, led the 238-runner field after a mile. He finished the 5-kilometer race in 18 minutes, 2 seconds.

The Wildcat boys finished ninth in the 12-team field. The girls finished eighth of eight schools that had complete teams (three schools did not field complete teams).

The girls were running 5K for the first time. Senior Ashley Canny grabbed the school record by being the first Wildcat finisher. Her time was 24:25.

?I?m very happy with the effort everybody gave tonight,? said coach Steve Riley. ?We have a lot of new runners, and they got a good idea of what cross-country is about.?

Columbus next runs at the Bob Brown Invitational in Iowa City on Sept. 3.

Boys results ? Dubuque Hempstead 24, Mount Vernon-Lisbon 58, Vinton-Shellsburg 112, Benton Community 134, Center Point-Urbana 148, Davenport North 184, Waverly Shell Rock 190, Springville-Central City 215, Columbus Community 245, West Delaware 258, Louisa-Muscatine 296, West Liberty did not field a complete team.

Columbus boys (238 runners total) ? 12. Josh Keller 18:02; 35. Adrian Santos 19:11; 103. Marc Estrada 21:26; 138. Tucker Morrison 22:19; 165. J.D. Lekwa 23:13; 169. Erick Cantarero 23:22; 190. Robert Conaway 24:14; 205. James Spurlock 25:01; 234. Chase Wheeler 31:11.

Girls results ? Dubuque Hempstead 22, Mount Vernon 42, Benton Community 93, Waverly Shell Rock 121, Springville-Central City 144, Vinton-Shellsburg 159, West Delaware 176, Columbus Community 224.

Columbus girls (189 runners total) ? 42. Ashley Canny 24:25; 65. Jenessa Carpenter 25:45; 92. Melissa Maldonado 26:51; 106. Grace Chapman 27:32; 173. Andrea Rodriguez 32:38.