Dickinson County News: High School Sports: Top-ranked Indians live up to preseason billing (08/25/10)

Spirit Lake senior Alec Baldwin pushes Algona's Ryan McMahon during the second mile of the 5K race Tuesday night at the Spencer Invitational. Baldwin took 30 seconds off his time from last season at the meet, placing second in 16 minutes, 28 seconds.

The Spirit Lake boys cross country team were able to accomplish a feat they came up short of last season, capturing the Spencer Invitational team championship by 13 points behind the strength of three top-5 performances in their season debut Tuesday at Spencer Municipal Golf Course.

The defending Class 2A state champions, who enter the season as the top-ranked team in 2A, powered to a rather undramatic victory over a pair of Lakes Conference rivals after getting clipped by one point by Algona last season at the same meet. The Indians tallied 64 points, while Storm Lake finished as the meet runner-up with 77 and Western Christian came in third with 81. Algona placed a distant fourth with 92 and host Spencer rounded out the top five with 128 points.

"Last year, Algona snipped us by a point at this meet," said Spirit Lake coach Tim Heinitz. "This year, I think our boys have it in their head that they want to win every meet by 30-40 points, but tonight they won by 13 points. I don't think they were happy with just beating Algona and being only 13 points ahead (of Storm Lake), but they're always looking to get better and that's just what our team is like, they're natural competitors. To win our first meet of the year is great, it's something we didn't do last year."

A couple of seniors battled it out for the top individual spot, with Ryan McMahon of Algona pulling away down the home stretch by 10 seconds to beat Alec Baldwin in an excellent early-season showdown.

"It was a lot closer than that the whole meet, but Ryan McMahon outdistanced him at the end," said Heinitz.

Spirit Lake sophomore Will Norris picks up the pace while trying to keep up with his teammate Keith Byers during the second half of the 5K race Tuesday evening at the Spencer Invitational. Norris placed third overall in 16 minutes, 52 seconds.

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Baldwin turned in an excellent, well-executed race despite coming up short of McMahon, crossing the finish line in 16 minutes, 28 seconds.

"We knew coming in that Alec's one of the top runners in northwest Iowa, if not the state," Heinitz said. "We knew he'd have a good race, his goal was to beat the McMahon boy from Algona, but it just wasn't to be tonight. He'll get more chances and we hope to get him a win in one or two of those races coming up. Alec did run 30 seconds faster than he did last season at the same meet. For Alec the time is coming very soon for him to win his first cross country team, it's just going to be a matter of time."

Sophomore Will Norris and junior Keith Byers also pushed each other to top-5 showings, racing side-by-side each other most of the 5K race and finishing third and fourth, respectively. Norris was clocked in 16:52 and Byers jetted to a time of 16:53, just one second behind Norris. Rounding out the top five scorers were Kyle Anderson in 24th (19:14) and Gabe McCoy in 31st (19:50).

Drew Brevik also placed 32nd in 19:52 and Zach Skopec came in 34th in 20:05 in the first varsity meet of his career.

"It was nice to see Keith Byers healthy again. It's been a long time since he's run healthy, and that includes the cross country and track season. Will Norris ran right with him tonight, it was nice to see those guys finish three and four," said Heinitz.. "What we'll need to work on is seeing our fourth and fifth runners close that gap, they were a little further behind than we would like, but Daniel Stover wasn't running tonight and we'll be a better team when we get him back. Also, a couple of our varsity runners are freshman and it'll take them time to adjust to the speed of a cross country race. Overall, I was very happy with how we ran on both the boys and girls side. For Kyle Anderson to finish in the top 25 as a freshman was big, he'll get more confident and figure out what he needs to do to be successful as the season goes along. All of our varsity runners are pretty dedicated to the sport, so I have no doubt that they'll do what they need to do in practice to get better."

Spencer Invitational (CENTERED AND BOLD)

Team scores -- 1. Spirit Lake 64; 2. 2. Storm Lake 77; 3. Western Christian 81; 4. Algona 92; 5. Spencer 128; 6. Le Mars 130; 7. OA/BCIG 158; 8. Emmetsburg 211.

Individual result -- 2. Alec Baldwin 16:28; 3. Will Norris 16:52; 4. Keith Byers 16:53; 24. Kyle Anderson 19:14; 31. Gabe McCoy 19:50; 32. Drew Brevik 19:52; 34. Zach Skopec 20:05.