WAUSA — Homer’s cross country teams both ran in a pack near the front of the race and claimed Lewis & Clark Conference titles as a result.
The Homer boys edged host Bloomfield/Wausa by two points and the Lady Knights put their four scoring runners in the top eight to sweep the team titles in Friday’s conference cross country meet, held at Rolling Hills Country Club near Wausa.
On a near-perfect afternoon for navigating the 5,000-meter course, both Homer teams came through with excellent efforts to sweep the conference titles.
In the boys race, Caden Barclay led four top-10 finishes for the Knights, placing fourth in a time of 18:05.98. Teammate Aayden Harris was seven seconds behind in fifth at 18:12.72, while brothers Junius and Jessup Snowball came in seventh and eight to round out the Knights win. Rounding out the Homer varsity were Caylix Huffman in 17th, Triston Owens in 18th and Charles Bolles, in 32nd.
Tri County Northeast had three runners competing, one short of the minimum to qualify for the team race. Jude Ridenour finished 14th in 19:02.37, with Alex Snyder about four seconds behind in 16th. Devon Lewellen placed 23rd.
The Homer girls dominated the ladies’ 5,000-meter run with their six varsity runners all finishing in the top 13.
Junior Lilly Harris was the conference medalist for the third year in a row with a time of 20:43.38, finishing almost a minute ahead of teammate Jaedyn Bousquet, who was the runner-up. Tawyn Bolles finished fifth and Lilyanna Dziurawiec came in eighth to round out the scoring. Okie Bolles was nine and Natali Cardasis finished 13th.
Tri County Northeast’s girls were the runner-up with 44 points, 10 points ahead of Bloomfield/Wausa. Alejandra Hermosillo was third and Bre Millard placed fourth for the Lady Wolfpack, followed by Chloe Peters in 20th, Jenni Olson in 27th and Hailey Millard in 31st.
Both teams will run in the district tournament on Thursday at Twin Creeks Golf Club near Pender.
Results and photos in next week's edition of the Dakota County Star.
