Time is ticking and junior Ethan Krampe is nearing the finish line. Trying his hardest to keep his legs moving, he crosses the finish line right behind his teammate Sam Yeager. Looking at the clock, he managed to beat his previous time by 8 seconds.

Last Saturday, the cross country team lined up in the 39th West Ottawa Bredeweg Invite. Overall, the Ranger boys finished in fifth place right behind Jenison. Sophomore Parker Ludwig recorded a personal record with a time of 17:31.5; Sawyer McCarthy also beat his PR by recording a time of 17:36.0. Despite these stellar finishes, Sam and Ethan were the leaders of the FHC pack in this race.

“I think it was a pretty good day,” Ethan said. “It was a pretty fast race and a lot of people got good personal records.”

Additionally, the coaching staff establishes the male squad as an improving, dark horse tandem that can show out in pressure-packed moments.

“The boys raced in a hard division against some of the best teams in the area,” head coach Ryan Schipper said.

The girls’ side performed very well, placing second out of 19 teams. Clare Mathison and Gwen Lamport both had big performances. Clare ran for 20:55.3 while Gwen ran for 20:58.1. These runners overall had a huge impact on the rest of the ladies. In the front of the group was Peyton Ludwig; she scored a time of 19:55.5 and placed 12th overall. Behind her was Mia Bateson, who ran for 19:57.1. 

The cross country team’s next race will be this Friday, September 17, in the Ottawa Hills Cross Country Invitational. The squad looks forward to showing improvement and beating its times.

“We had a great team effort without some of our regular varsity runners sitting out this meet,” coach Schipper said.