Eagles meet challenge at UNK

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The Milford boys’ cross country team had a good day at the University of Nebraska at Kearney Invite Sept. 27, finishing second in the team standings behind Sidney.

The Eagles ran well despite the heat, Coach Michele Kontor said.

“Quite a few good runners went down – not any from Milford,” she said. “We knew we would be challenged.”

Kaleb Eickhoff led the team with a sixth-place finish and time of 17:51.52. Elliott Reitz was 13th, Carter Roth 23rd and Maddox Baack 33rd.

Kontor said the 27-point gap to Sidney can be bridged. Roth never runs well in the heat, so at a cooler meet, his performance would be better. Both he and Baack struggled at UNK.

“If they have a good run, I wouldn’t count us out,” Kontor said. “We know we can beat all the other teams. We haven’t beat Sidney.”

At Aquinas Oct. 1, the Eagles finished atop the team standings with 23 points, besting Fort Calhoun by six.

Eickhoff was second, Reitz fourth, Roth seventh, Baack 10th, Gavin Dunlap 11th and Landon Lautzenhiser 12th.

“Nottingham from Seward was the lead kid, and the next six were Milford and Fort Calhoun,” Kontor said. “It was orange and purple without Seward.”

Kontor said the Fort Calhoun runners started out strong and then faded, while Milford surged at the end, which is what she wanted to see.

“You need to pass more people than pass you,” she said.

Lautzenhiser ran varsity at David City and finished just two seconds behind Dunlap.

“He ran the race of his life,” Kontor said.

Roth broke 18 minutes again, and Baack finished ahead of last year’s time.

The Eagle girls had a good pair of meets, as well. Their goal was the top 10 at UNK, and they finished ninth. Lilly Kenning started out well and was second after the first mile and struggled with conditions and finished 37th. She came back with a good race at David City, breaking 20 minutes and winning.

Eliza McGuire was the next finisher at UNK, crossing the line in 42nd place. She earned a 13th-place medal at David City. Victoria Mink was 14th and Ellison Piening 15th at DC.

Kontor said Piening and Mink have been running together and challenging each other in each race.

The team won the Aquinas meet, beating Seward by four points.

Kontor was pleased with how the girls performed, especially since this summer, she didn’t know if MHS would have a full girls’ team.

“It’ll be exciting to see where they go next,” she said.