The Andes Central/Dakota Christian Thunder Cross Country team competed in their season opening meet on Saturday, August 27 at the Mitchell Invitational Meet. After a delay due to lighting in the area, both the boys and girls varsity raced together over 4000 meters. This first meet is run 1000 meters shorter that the standard 5K distance. Running in the Boys’ Varsity Race was Tony Hansum who placed 40th out of the ninety boy runners with a time of 17:10. For the girls, Lexi Schoenfelder was 5th (17:49), followed by Anna DaHaan 6th (17:52), and Eilie De-Haan 17th (19:42).

Coach Larry Lucas commented, “Looking back at our times from last year in this Meet everyone ran over a minute faster. This is very promising and shows that we are beginning the season more fit and more focused in our overall training.”

The Mitchell Meet hosts a large number of area schools. No team scores were kept. Other first meets of the season were at Beresford and Douglas on Friday. Both winners in the varsity races at Mitchell, Kinsey Evans from Chamberlain and Pierce Baumberger from Miller defended their titles last year.

The Thunder competed at Gregory on Tuesday, August 30. Results of this meet will be reported next week.