Sports writer
Goessel High School’s Shanna Klassen picked Saturday’s state cross country meet to have her best time of the season.
She finished 23rd in the 4k race with a time of 17 minutes, 50.66 seconds.
Her improvement helped the Bluebird girls finish one point ahead of Montezuma for fifth place in the team competition.
Kristen Hoffman finished the course in 35th place, 18:34.75, Lindsey Wedel was not far behind in 42nd (18:52.37), Mareika Joppien came in 53rd with her second fastest time of the season 19:35.28, and teammate Sara Boman turned in a time of 21:08.90.
In the 1A boys’ competition, the Bluebirds finished in fifth place, five points behind Montezuma.
Goessel was led by juniors Jared Reimer and Laird Goertzen.
Reimer finished 13th and Goertzen came in 27th with times of 18:17.12 and 18:50.32, respectively.
Austin Unruh, recovering from an injury, helped his team by finishing in 19:32.86 in his second race of the year.
Derek Kruger broke the 20-minute barrier with a 55th-place finish in 19:57.99.
Chad Wedel came in at 21:10.18, and senior Anthony Esau ran his last race for the Bluebirds, finishing in 22:47.52.