Liberty Bell’s Ava Mott hit the mile mark climbing through the woods at the Leavenworth Invitational.
Against a field of two-dozen schools, most of them larger, the Liberty Bell High School girls’ cross-country squad took the team title at last weekend’s Leavenworth Invitational meet.
Led by junior Novie McCabe, who took first place in the 2.8-mile race to outdistance more than 220 other runners, the Lady Lions scored 51 points to Selah’s 64 to claim the title trophy. (In cross-country, the lowest score wins, based on where the top five runners for each team place.)
McCabe finished 28 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Lauren Block of Shorecrest. All of Liberty Bell’s scoring runners were clustered near the top of the big pack of competitors, including three in the top 10 finishers.
Although the Lady Lions have been without another outstanding junior, Greta Scholz, so far this season due to an injury, another Greta — sophomore Greta Laesch — has stepped up as an important scorer for Liberty Bell. She took 8th place in the Leavenworth race, followed by senior Ella Kuzyk in 10th, freshman Jori Grialou in 17th, senior Ava Mott in 27th, sophomore Lena Nelson in 59th, sophomore Lindsay Worrell in 79th, sophomore Annika Tate Libby in 89th, freshman Payten Kaufman in 114th and senior Willa Hilton in 130th.
Meanwhile, the Liberty Bell boys’ team claimed 17th place out of 24 scoring teams. Sophomore Travis Grialou was the first Mountain Lion across the finish line in 41st place in a field of 174 runners. Sophomore Bodhi Kuzyk finished 79th, senior Lazo Gitchos 90th, freshman Bellamy Kar 97th and freshman Cooper Legler 113th.
Some Liberty Bell runners were not available because they were taking SAT exams.
Next on the schedule is the Bridgeport Invitational 5K on Tuesday (Oct. 9), followed by the Oroville Invitational on Friday (Oct. 12). On Oct. 20, Liberty Bell will host the CWB League Championships, where both the girls’ and boys’ teams will be defending champions.
