The Carlisle girls cross country team had a big week last week as they ran two meets- at Ballard on Monday, September 13 and at the Heartland Classic in Pella on Saturday, September 18th. 

The Ballard Invitational featured a full varsity lineup of Ainsley Erzen, Tessa Erzen, Maya Bergstrom, Marie Daggett, Riley Sievers, Hannah McGraw, and Laura Downs. The Wildcats placed 3rd with 88 points in the Class A race, falling to 3A #2 ranked Dallas Center-Grimes (46 points) and 4A Indianola (55 points). In the combined A/B Race, the runners would have placed 6th behind conference competition, Ballard and North Polk. In the Class A race, A Erzen placed first and T Erzen placed 9th.

The Heartland Classic didn't see Carlisle's full varsity squad, so our runners were represented in the Freshman/Sophomore race and the JV race. Highlights from the Freshman/Sophomore race show sophomores Maya Bergstrom placing 3rd and Marie Dagget placing 7th. Freshmen Mary Gano and Kira Fisk both ran personal best times in this race. In the JV race, Laura Downs ran a season's best time and placed 33rd. Katie Clark also improved her best by one minute. There were not enough runners in either race to compile a team score, but the efforts were impressive in the large field. 

On a final note, senior Ainsley Erzen was crowned Homecoming Queen this week!