Carson City's Bethlehem runners place 13th in Cross Country National Championships
This past weekend, Bethlehem Lutheran School of Carson City sent their boys cross country team to compete in the National Lutheran Cross Country Championships held at Concordia University in Mequon, Wisconsin.
Nearly 400 runners lined up on an overcast Saturday to make their way through soggy, slick, and chilly conditions.
Despite being one of the smaller schools in the competition, the Crusaders placed 13th out of 20 complete teams with a score of 302 points.
Eighth grader Aiden Fredlund led the team, finishing 50th in a time of 13:10, followed closely by seventh graders Max Woelfel (56th in 13:15) and Josh Fox (72nd in 13:32). Rounding out the team were seventh grader Chandler Ricks (14:31) and eighth graders Chunjae Stewart (14:32) and Jace Wakamatsu (14:34). Fredlund was the highest finisher ever for a Nevada runner in the race, and every runner from Bethlehem achieved a personal record time on the muddy two-mile course. The Crusaders, crowned the Small School Champions the previous week at the Tah-Neva League Championships, are led by coaches Amanda Manning and Jedidiah Maschke.
The winner of the race was Amanuel Putz, a seventh grader from St. Paul Lutheran School in Onalaska, Wisconsin, in a time of 11:03 and the team competition was won by Zion Lutheran School of St. Charles, Missouri.
The Crusaders were the only school from Nevada invited to the race, which featured top runners from Lutheran schools in nine different states. Bethlehem Lutheran School serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade.