Glenwood cross country hitting stride

The Glenwood girls cross country team picked up its second straight meet title this season with the team title at the Harlan Invitational Saturday at the Harlan Golf and Country Club.

The Rams had all five of their place winners finish among the top 17 runners to tally 48 points. The host Cyclones was the runner up with 53 points.

Tri-Center’s Peyton Pogge was the individual girls champion with a time of 20:01.93.

On the boys side, Atlantic, led by a top individual finish by Craig Alan Becker, won the team champion with 69 points. Council Bluffs Lewis Central was a close second with 73. The Glenwood boys, running without one of their top varsity runners Andrew Smith, place fourth with 96 points.

The Glenwood girls continued to get strong running from Emma Hughes. The senior paced the Rams with a third place finish time of 20:19.02. Hughes has placed no lower than third in every race this season.

Erin Schultz added a 10th place finish, followed closely by Lauren Hughes (11th place), Riley Wiese (12th) and Rachel Mullennax (17th).   

The Glenwood boys had a strong showing even without Smith in the lineup.

The freshman that has topped the Rams’ finishes the last three meets was scratched due to illness just 45 minutes before the race.

“I looked at him and told him he’s not running,” said Glenwood coach Todd Peverill. “We think it was something he ate so we don’t think it’s a long-term thing.”

With Smith out, senior Nathan Rohrberg took the lead for the Glenwood boys. The senior, who had been less than 100 percent for much of the first half of the season and still isn’t quite all the way, according to, ran a strong race.

“He’s getting better,” Peverill said. “He’s still not 100 percent race wise but he’s getting there and he’s playing catch up, trying to get back to where he was. He ran a great race and he’s close.”

Rohrberg placed 10th in 17:38.96.

Freshman Liam Hayes was 12th for Glenwood with a time of 17:4 and fellow freshman Bryant Keller added a 16th place finish.

“Liam was actually leading Nate most of the race and Nate had a strong last half mile to pull past him,” Peverill said.

Dillon Anderson placed 26th and Tyler Huey 32nd to complete the Rams’ scoring.

Peverill had hoped to have his team 100-percent healthy by the Harlan met to begin the final charge into the Hawkeye 10 Meet and then districts but he knows his team isn’t there yet.

“If we had Andrew and he had placed right in where he has against most of these kids, we’d have won the meet by at least four points,” he said. “We’re there. What is nice is our fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth runners are coming on strong now so we’re getting that bottom up we were missing earlier.”

The Glenwood boys junior varsity and middle school teams both swept the team titles in their respective races.

Harlan Invite
Girls Team Results
1. Glenwood, 48. 2. Harlan, 53. 3. Atlantic, 74. 4. Tri-Center, 143. 5. Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln, 157. 6. Treynor, 162. 7. Council Bluffs Lewis Central, 181. 8. Red Oak, 184. 9. Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson, 197. 10. Denison, 258.

Glenwood Girls Place Winners
3. Emma Hughes, 20:19.02. 10. Erin Schultz, 21:14.52. 11. Lauren Hughes, 21:21.65. 12. Riley Wiese, 21:22.68. 17. Rachel Mullennax, 21:33.52. 19. Ryley Nebel, 21:46.72. 24. Lauren Becker, 22:23.27.

Boys Team Results
1. Atlantic, 69. 2. Council Bluffs Lewis Central, 73. 3. Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson, 90. 4. Glenwood, 96. 5. Harlan, 135. 6. Clarinda, 191. 7. Council Bluffs St. Albert, 232. 8. Treynor, 240. 9. Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln, 244. 10. Red Oak, 250. 11. Denison, 295. 12. Riverside, 295. 13. Tri-Center, 299. 14. Underwood, 337.

Glenwood Boys Place Winners
10. Nathan Rohrberg, 17:38.96. 12. Liam Hayes, 17:47. 16. Bryant Keller, 18:13.05. 26. Dillon Anderson, 18:41.40. 32. Tyler Huey, 18:51.58. 49. Ethan Chappell, 19:46.59.

Rams sweep at Creston

The Glenwood girls and boys cross country teams swept the team titles at the Creston Invitational on the campus of Southwest Community College Tuesday.

The Ram cross country programs actually swept ALL the team titles at Creston: both the girls and boys middle school, junior varsity and varsity teams won their respective races.

Glenwood boys coach Todd Peverill said that last happened in the 2017 season, also at Creston.

In the larger schools, “Class A” races Tuesday, the Glenwood girls had all five of its place winners among the top 10 and finished with 36 points while the boys tallied 54 points for top team honors.

Glenwood’s girls varsity, which had seven individual runners earn medals, was paced by the second place showing of Emma Hughes. Creston’s Braelyn Baker was the meet winner with a time of 19:56.1.

Rounding out the Ram scoring was Erin Schultz, who came in fourth, Riley Wiese in sixth, Rachel Mullennax in ninth and Ryley Nebel was 15th.

“It was a fun meet for the girls,” said Glenwood girls coach Dani Woodman. “I think they are just as excited for the team win as when they do well individually. It was a good bus ride home.”

Woodman stopped short of calling the meet the best her team has run top to bottom this season but she does like the fact it feels like they are getting better every week.

“Now that we’ve gotten through the getting in shape part, we’re starting to talk about race strategy and how we can compete better,” she said. “We’re definitely going in the right direction.”

Glenwood boys coach Todd Peverill didn’t know what to expect from his team heading into the Creston meet. His team has had its share of injuries and illness and they were coming off a tough week of practice.

“Some of us were very tired and some it didn’t bother but we ran a great race,” Peverill said.

Andrew Smith led three Glenwood boys runners to place in the top 10. Smith ran a 17:07.2 to place fourth overall. Nathan Rohrberg added an eighth place finish and Liam Hays was 10th. Tyler Huey placed 17th to complete the Rams’ scoring.

“Andrew ran really well, aggressive and smart. He’s closing in the top guys. At our home meet he was getting beat by some of these guys by over a minute, now he’s within 15 or 20 seconds of them.”

Rohrberg, who has missed time due to illness, appears to be on the mend and ran a strong race, Peverill said. Huey is still struggling with a lower leg injury but fought through it to finish as the Rams’ fifth runner.

Atlantic’s Craig Alan Baker was the boys individual champion with a time of 16:34.10.

Peverill said he felt like this the best his team has run “top to bottom” this season.

“We had six runners in front of Atlantic’s fifth runner, we had six guys in front of Lewis Central’s fifth runner, when you start doing that, that’s really good,” he said. “And on the top end, we had three runners ahead of  Lewis Central’s number three runner and three ahead of Atlantic’s number three runner. That’s looking pretty good. We’re solid. But we have quite a bit of improvement to go with our youth. They’re still figuring things out.”

Creston Invitational
Girls Team Results
1. Glenwood, 36. 2. Winterset, 91. 3. Atlantic, 105. 4. Creston, 121. 5. Council Bluffs Lewis Central, 127. 6. Clarinda, 176. 7. Red Oak, 177. 8. Chariton, 194. 9. Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson, 203. 10. Shenandoah, 232.

Glenwood Girls Place Winners
2. Emma Hughes, 20:42.2. 4. Erin Schultz, 21:17.1. 6. Riley Weise, 21:32.9. 9. Rachel Mullennax, 21:39.2. 15. Ryley Nebel, 22:03. 16. Lauren Hughes, 22:03.3.20. Lauren Becker, 22:54.3.

Boys Team Results
1. Glenwood, 54. 2. Atlantic, 64. 3. Council Bluffs Lewis Central, 72. 4. Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson, 94. 5. Winterset, 113. 6. Shenandoah, 150. 7. Clarinda, 160. 8. Red Oak, 208. 9. Chariton, 268.

Glenwood Boys Place Winners.
4. Andrew Smith, 17:07.2. 8. Nathan Rohrberg, 17:47.6. 9. Liam Hays, 18:15.3. 16. Bryant Keller, 18:42.3. 17. Tyler Huey, 18:48.6. 19. Dillon Anderson, 18:56. 33. Ethan Chappel, 19:23.5.