Dragons find footing on tough course
Clinton cross country Coach Tim Kumes came away encouraged by the performance of his young teams on a challenging course at the Johnson University Invitational on Thursday, Oct. 1.
“Typically, that’s a course that the kids kind of get worked up about because they know it’s a difficult course, but the changes were well received by the kids,” Kumes said. “The weather was a little bit warm at the start of the race, but hey, that’s just part of the season this year. We had good results.”
Senior Cooper Bostrom led the Dragons, finishing in the top 15 and earning a medal with a time of 18 minutes, 7.80 seconds.
Joe Patton was another finisher for Clinton, placing 160th.
Sophomore Lilian West paced the Lady Dragons with a 19th-place finish.
“Lily had a great race,” Kumes said. “Lily’s a little competitor. Every time that she goes out, she runs hard.
“I think that looking forward, she should be right where she needs to be for qualification for coming through sectionals and into the state race.”
Freshmen Caroline Jones and Adah Freels also turned in strong performances for Clinton, finishing 40th and 49th, respectively.
Kumes said the youth on both rosters gives Clinton plenty of reason for optimism beyond this season.
“We have really young teams,” he said. “There’s some nice talent coming in from the middle school next year. So while it’s a down year for us as far as numbers go, I’m hoping that next year we’ll have a bigger team with a little bit of experience, and hopefully they can mentor these younger kids coming in next year.”