Submitted Rugby High School runners, senior Bailey Nelson (left) and sophomore Karin Selland, race at Cooperstown Bible Camp on Oct. 9.

The Rugby High School cross country teams took second place in the boys 5K (3.1 mi) and girls 4K (2.58 mi) at the G “Ott” Courage Invitational on Oct. 9 at Cooperstown Bible Camp.

It was the final tuneup before today’s East Region meet and the Panthers proved they belong in the discussion of top teams throughout the region.

The RHS girls lost to Hillsboro-Central Valley by one point. The Panthers’ 94 included strong runs from Tristin Lunde (8th), Allison Foster (10), Bailey Nelson (22), Jessica Blessum (24) and Karin Selland (30).

“We had some girls running some better times, which is good,” RHS coach Bill Jansen said, “but we need our 3, 4 and 5 to really step up next Saturday (at state).”

The girls race included 104 runners. Lunde and Foster inched closer to their goals of cracking the 16-minute mark with times of 16:12 and 16:19, respectively.

Cailee Peterson, of Mayville-Portland-Clifford-Galesburg, won the race in 15:06.

The boys lost by just 12 points to Medina-Pingree-Buchanan. RHS senior Tanner Bernhardt was second overall and led three Panthers in the top 20. Rounding out the Panthers’ scorers are Nolan Hovland (7), Brady Fossum (17), Gabe Clements (33) and Noah Kraft (36). Bernhardt ran 17:19 and Hovland finished in 18:00.

H-CV made it a tight top three, finishing just five points off Rugby.

“Hillsboro again was on our tails,” Jansen said. “They’re going to be tough for a couple years.”

Nick Thomas of M-P-B won the race in 16:47.

While the West Region and both Class A regions ran their regional meets on Oct. 11, the Class B East Region is running its meet today. Jansen said it’s been done this way for awhile and he doesn’t mind it.

“It’s more normal to what we’ve done all year,” he said. “We’re normally running a meet a week and I like to keep it that way.”

The region meets do not serve as qualifiers, but Jansen still expects his teams to race for the title today.

Runners compete for Breast Cancer Awareness

Panther runners are wearing pink socks during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Through the ‘I Run For’ campaign, runners are running in honor of friends and family impacted by breast cancer. Area businesses have joined and are making donations to the American Cancer Society every time a runner breaks a personal record.

In Cooperstown, the following RHS runners ran personal bests: Jessica Blessum, Dessa Denich, Tristin Lunde, Ellie Duchscherer, Taylor Nelson, Tanner Bernhardt, Brady Fossum and Nolan Hovland.

I design donated the socks. Central Carriers and KZZJ sponsored the previous meet.