Both cross country teams traveled to Riverside Park for the Ottawa Hills invite last Friday, and neither team disappointed. The girl’s team took first place, while the boys barely came in fourth and were just shy of the second and third-place finishers. Both teams had many personal records and greatly improved on their first jamboree.

“Both teams did very well,” senior Kyle James-Heer said. “The guys have shown huge improvement since the last jamboree, and the girls continue with their momentum as they won last Friday.”

The boys took off first in section three of three at the invite and finished very well as a team. The Rangers had six finishers in the top 30 with junior Sam Yeager finishing first for the Rangers. He placed tenth with a time of 16 minutes and 27 seconds. Following him was sophomore Ethan Krampe, who finished 23rd with a time of 17 minutes and 13 seconds. Following him were 4 more finishers for the Rangers. They were Kyle, seniors Tanner Wooden and Jonah Cummings, and freshman Parker Ludwig. They finished fourth out of seven teams and were 11 points off of the second-place title.

The girls took off next in section one of three, and they started from where they left off in the first OK White Jamboree last Wednesday. The Rangers had three finishers in the top 10 and four in the top 15. The top finisher for the Rangers was freshman Clara James-Heer. She finished first in her section with a time of 18 minutes and 6 seconds. The next finishers were senior Whitney Currie, freshman Peyton Ludwig, and junior Claire Richardson. The Lady Rangers ran away with their first win of the year as a team, beating out second-place Portage Central by 17 points.

“Overall, it was a great day for us,” head coach Ryan Schipper said. “We had a great day on the lady’s side and on the guy’s side. We are now moving onto next Wednesday’s meet and are looking toward improvement over the week.”

The Rangers will go on face Northview at home. The event will be on Wednesday, September 23rd at 3:45 PM at Thornapple Pointe.