Not even a wicked Northern Plains wind can slow down Aleona Reyes.
The Jamestown College sophomore pulled away from the field midway through the 51st Annual Roe Granger Invitational in Aberdeen and coasted to her first win of the season.
Reyes who has placed 2nd, 7th and 20th (at the prestigious Roy Griak meet in Minneapolis) sliced through the wind that swept the entire region, finishing 24 seconds ahead of anybody else.
"Wind was the order of the day," JC women's coach Jim Clark said. "Aleona, nothing much seems to bother her. She ran with the pack for a little while, but once she started to pull away she really separated and kept building on the lead."
The Jimmies finished fourth as a team, but were also missing a pair of their top runners. Northern State, the meet host, won with a score of 41. Minot State (55) was second, MSU-Moorhead third (57) and the Jimmies fourth (61). Presentation College was a distant fifth.
ADVERTISEMENT
Madey Hornung ran a strong fifth for the Jimmies. Her time of 20:19 had her charging and passing in the second half of the race.
"Madey ran a really good race," said Clark.
Freshman Andrea Markwart was 16th, Cambrya Belter 19th and another freshman -- Moriah Juhl -- was the fifth Jimmie across in her best race so far.
It was the first standard 5K race for the Jimmies, but the winds did push times higher for mostly everybody.
J.J. Koerber led the JC men, who finished fourth.
Koerber's 15th-place time of 28:38 was part of a balanced JC effort.
The Jimmies had four finishers in spots 20-27 and another in 30th.
"We're definitely improving. We had a good week of practice and we seem to be getting better, which is encouraging," JC men's coach Ed Crawford said. "We have a lot of depth as far as 6 or 7 guys that are pretty close. If we could develop a frontrunner, someone who wants to step up and run 30 seconds faster that would really help our cause."
ADVERTISEMENT
Dave Londe has been the Jimmies' lead runner early, but had a rare off race, placing 30th.
Nate Christensen (29:04), former Blue Jay Spencer Kamoni (29:11), Clinton Senn (29:24) and another former Blue Jay, Justin Slusser (30:03), rounded out the top 5.
It was the first race for Slusser in three years. A former all-state runner at JHS, he's been hampered by injuries, but is making progress.
Senn and Kamoni posted season-best times. For Senn, it was his third straight lifetime best.
Northern State won the meet, beating MSUM, 24-32.
The Jimmies did not beat anybody, but Crawford is seeing progress.
"It's disappointing not to beat anybody, but our times were really pretty good," he said. "Our start to the season was kind of frustrating, but we're starting to build in the right direction. Hopefully we can carry that through the rest of the season and into indoor and outdoor track."
The Jimmies have their lone home meet of the season on Friday when they host Bemidji State, Concordia, Minot State and possibly Valley City at Hillcrest.
ADVERTISEMENT
51st Roe Granger Invitational
At Aberdeen
Women
Team results
1, Northern 41; 2, Minot State 55; 3, MSU-Moorhead 57; 4, Jamestown College 61; 5, Presentation College 150.
Individual results
1, Aleona Reyes, JC, 19:16; 2, Danielle Thompson, MSUM, 19:40
Other JC results
ADVERTISEMENT
16, Andrea Markwart, 21:34; 19, Cambrya Belter, 22:00; 20, Mariah Juhl, 22:06; 24, Bernie Bachel, 22:45; 25, Miranda Charley, 23:17; 26, Ashley Mueller, 23:45; 33, Kaia Bickford, 26:19.
Men
1, Northern 24; 2, MSU-Moorhead 32; 3, Minot State 81; 4, Jamestown College 102.
Individual results not available
JC results
15, Koerber, 28:38; 20, Nate Christensen, 29:04; 21, Spencer Kamoni, 29:11; 24, Clinton Senn, 29:24; 27, Justin Slusser, 30:03.
30, Dave Londe, 30:41; 33, Kyle Heim, 33:07; 35, Bob Heinzen, 34:17.
Sun sports editor Dave Selvig can be reached at (701) 952-8460 or by e-mail at daves@jamestownsun.com
