The Wildcat girls cross country team scored 186 points and placed 7th of 11 teams at the Southeast Polk Invitational on Thursday, October 1st. Moving into championship season, the girls competed hard against some solid 4A ranked squads and fellow 3A-ranked Dallas Center-Grimes- who finished fourth. WDM Valley won the meet with 43 points. Waukee came in second with 82 points. The host, Southeast Polk, placed 3rd with 90 points. Dowling JV finished 5th, and Ankeny finished 6th. Teams trailing Carlisle were Atlantic in 8th, Iowa City West in 9th, and Ames in 10th. 

Junior Ainsley Erzen won the meet in 18:40, beating 4A No.1 ranked Lauren McMahon of Ankeny by six seconds. Sophomore Tessa Erzen was Carlisle's second finisher, placing 23rd in 20:46. Rounding out the rest of the varsity squad was freshman Maya Bergstrom (52nd, 22:07), freshman Marie Daggett (54th, 22:27), sophomore Laura Downs (56th, 22:37), sophomore Riley Sievers (63rd, 23:35), and senior Ella Andersen (70th, 25:05). Laura Downs ran her career best at Thursday's meet and now sits at the No. 12 spot on Carlisle girls' all-time best 5k list.

The JV squad placed 8th of 9 teams against a strong 4A field. Sophomore Hannah McGraw led the 'Cats and finished 43rd in 24:27, Sophomore Sage Austin was 47th in 24:44, freshman Bri White was 48th in 25:03, sophomore Cadence Sinclair was 60th in 29:16, sophomore Bella Pagel was 61st in 30:36, and sophomore Madelynn McFadden was 62nd in 31:46. 

The Wildcats have a busy week next week as JV will be running at Norwalk on Monday and varsity will preview the state cross country course at the Fort Dodge Invitational on Thursday.