The rolling hills of Knoll Ridge Golf Course in North English welcomed area competitors Tuesday to the annual English Valleys Invitational. There were no girls team scores in the race, but area athletes managed to shine. Top individual from the KCII listening area was runner-up and former JET Physical Therapy Athlete of the Week, Ellie Yates from Sigourney, who finished in a time of 23:18. She spoke after the race about her night. “My goal was to stay a little conservative on the smaller loop and then just go for it on the bigger two loops. Today felt really good. The key part of the race was the second loop. I think I expanded my lead on the third place girl quite a bit.”

Audra Coss of Wilton won the race in 23:07. Other finishers for the Savages included Reanah Utterback 10th and Addison Yates 13th.

Beyond Sigourney, Lone Tree’s Vivian Zaruba was sixth in 24:36, WACO’s Justine Lynn was 16th in 27:51 along with the Warriors McKenzie Vradenburg 19th and Hannah Dennis 24th. Top Highland finisher was Erika Thomann 20th in 28:48 with Halle Hazelett 23rd.

On the boys side of the event, top area team finish went to WACO in third with 65 points. North Mahaska won the meet with 19 points. Top finish for the Warriors came from Isaac Rich 11th in 20:57. Other Warrior runners included Keriran Luitjens 14th, Tristan Luitjens 20th, Mattias Luitjens 23rd, Tanner Egli 25th, and Decon Bird 50th.

Highland was sixth in the team standings with 149 points. Top finish for the Huskies came from Jackson Schneider in 36th with a time of 24:51. Other Highland runners included Brendan Schnoebelen 40th, Brayden Zywiec 51st, Chase Boshart 52nd, and Chase Hickenbottom 57th.

Top area individual was Sigourney’s Troy Klett seventh with a time of 19:48. He spoke after the race about the run. “I’ve run here once and there’s a lot of uphill and downhill, so you have to use your momentum. I think I was a little dehydrated today. I cramped up a little bit toward the last lap. Coming up the last hill on the straight away I gave it all I got.”

The Savages Dawson Meyer also finished 44th. Hillcrest Academy’s Micah Gerber was eighth in 20:29. Other Ravens included Jesse Blossom 18th, Kyle Neuschwander 54th and Jeremiah Danker 56th. For Lone Tree Jadin Grieser was 34th in 24:03 with Blake Honeycutt 38th, Taylor Alberhasky 41st, Joey Birtcher 42nd, Keota’s Owen Morris was 32nd.