Polk County Middle School’s cross country teams traveled to Jackson Park on Tuesday, with both squads showing competitive performances against a strong field.
In the girls race, featuring 114 runners from seven teams, Polk County finished fifth overall. That finish included a dramatic end-of-race surge by Sophia Junge.
In third place heading into the final stretch, Junge sprinted with everything she had to pull ahead of Zoe Miller of Apple Valley to take second place, finishing in 14:14, only a half-second ahead of Miller and just 16 seconds shy of first.
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In the boys’ race, it was Noah Hammond with another impressive finish, coming in second place with a time of 12:35, only 12 seconds behind winner Nash Jordan of Rugby Middle.
“All of the Polk County boys and girls continue to work hard each week and are impressing coaches by shaving significant amounts of time off their scores each week,” said head coach Jennifer Morton.
Polk County Middle
Boys
Noah Hammond: 12:35
Noah Gutierrez: 14:17
John McGrath: 15:22
Xavier Chimalopopoca: 15:40
Eric Ramirez: 15:40
Kelton Kitchen: 17:02
Ellis Searcy: 17:18.05
Kaiden Kitchen: 20:53
Girls
Sophia Junge: 14:41
Rylie Klimstra: 17:36
Nora Williams: 18:02
Heidi Klootwyk: 18:23
Lucy Delmas: 18:27
Ellis Miller: 18:54
Carolina Foster: 19:03
Kayla Hayford: 19:34
Addie Blackwell: 19:38
Dulce Chavez Gonzalez: 20:22
Bella Emery: 25:02
Clara Parris: 29:19
