SULLY — Coming into the season ready to go is something Lynnville-Sully High cross country runners know is important for successful on the cross country courses. Hawk cross country head coach Darin Arkema expects his athletes to have put in the summer workouts to be in condition on the first day of practice.
“To reach the goals we’ve set as teams, our runners realize they can’t just show up in August and expect to be able to have the success we want,” Arkema said.
The Lynnville-Sully girls return four runners off the team that placed 10th at the 2012 Iowa Class 1A State Cross Country Meet. The Hawk boys saw several young runners step up and prove capable of running against varsity competition last year.
Seniors Alexa Vander Leest, Karli Roozeboom and Tara Vos and junior Cori Rice are the top runners back for the Hawk girls. Vos finished 22nd at the 1A state meet and Rice was 33rd. Vander Leest ran 42nd and Roozeboom placed 47th.
“We’re anticipating this foursome will continue to be successful. These four have had back-to-back seasons of success. We just missed qualifying as a team two years ago and then we went as a team last year,” Arkema said of the girls.
Joining the four veterans for the Hawk girls are freshmen Alexis Hardenbrook, Kristine Jaennette, Emma Schnell and Lizzy Van Manen. Arkema said there is also a foreign exchange student from Denmark planning to join the team.
“Both the girls and boys, who are returning, had strong track seasons for us,” Arkema said.
At the 1A district cross country meet, the Hawk boys showed their youth last year, finishing 11th out of 15 teams. Arkema expects the Lynnville-Sully boys to be very competitive in 2013.
The Hawk boys are led by Talon Woods, who is the only senior on the team. Four juniors return in Ben Trettin, Jake Brand, Kordell Mueller and Connor Fraker. Sophomore Canyon Kuhlmann had a strong freshman season a year ago.
Lynnville-Sully has two freshman boys on the team in Luke Jones and Jim Trettin. Arkema said Jones and J. Trettin ran well in middle school competiton.
“We’re going after South Iowa Cedar League championships. That’s our goal, then to qualify for the state meet,” Arkema said. “We’re excited about this season. Our girls’ team has a lot of experience back and so does our boys’ team, but they are still pretty young.”
Lynnville-Sully begins the 2013 cross country season on Sept. 3 at the Iowa Mennonite Invitational. It holds the L-S Invitational at Diamond Trail Golf Course on Sept. 19.