March 29, 2024

Area runners take on challenging PCM cross country course

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MONROE — There was one glitch at the 2013 PCM Invitational cross country meet Thursday. Times for the girls’ varsity/junior varsity races are 25 seconds short because of a clock-operator error, according to PCM head coach Eric Karr.

“Other than that, we had a great home meet,” Karr said. “For our varsity boys and girls, they didn’t have the times I was hoping for, but that didn’t really surprise me. I worked them incredibly hard on Monday and Tuesday, not to mention our course is not even close to easy.

“Effort wise, form wise, mental toughness wise, they are right where I want them. I reminded our kids that the race that counts is in a month, and that race is based on places not times.”

North Polk captured the boys’ varsity title with 46 points. Knoxville was a distant second with 90 points. Collins-Maxwell/Baxter was the top local team, finishing seventh with 183 points, followed by Pella Christian with 188 points and Lynnville-Sully with 236 for eighth and ninth, respectively.

Prairie City-Monroe’s Mustangs ended up 13th at their home meet with 341 points. Colfax-Mingo was 14th with 374 points. The meet was held at Gatewood Golf Course in Monroe.

Ballard claimed the top honors in the varsity girls’ race with 68 points. Lynnville-Sully finished second with 87 points. CMB took fifth with 153 points and Pella Christian placed eighth with 216 points.

The PCM Mustang girls finished ninth with 242 points. Colfax-Mingo was 11th with 256 points in the field of 13 teams.

CMB’s Mark Deutsch turned in the top performance by area runners in the boys’ race. Deutsch ran the 5K distance in 19 minutes, 7.81 seconds. Jacob Lensing of Pella Christian earned the 10th-place medal in 19:12.62.

Colin Thomason of CMB ran 16th in 19:43.30. Lynnville-Sully’s No. 1 runner of the day was Canyon Kuhlmann in 19:47.49.

PCM’s Matt Chizek had the early lead in the race, which was won by Peter Smith of North Polk in 17:20.55. Chizek earned the final medal of the race for 25th in 20:02.79.

Joining Chizek for the Mustangs were Chris Ellens in 81st in 22:13, Mark Bruxvoort in 139th in 24:47, Connor Brey in 144th in 25:13, and Lucas Rains in 161st in 26:55.

Deutsch and Thomason led the CMB Raiders to seventh place. Calvin Jones placed 52nd in 21:13.28, Drake Caple finished 69th in 21:50.36, and Brock Johnston was 77th in 22:07.67. Others running for the Raiders and placing were: 88. Jacob Hallett, 22:38.18, 90. Eric Hall-Flooden, 22:42.90, 103. Connor Johnson, 23:09.35, 126. Lincoln Brown, 24:00.78, 176. Curtis Jones, 29:40.41.

“I couldn’t be more happy with our teams tonight.  They raced well, competed at a high level, and they all did the very best they could tonight.  None of my athletes were happy with their times,” said Jerry Meinerts, CMB head coach.

“I don’t want to make excuses for them, but this is a difficult, hilly course on a hot-windy afternoon.  The conditions were not the best for running fast times.  But, they showed a lot of heart and competed right where they should be this time of the season.  I’m excited where we are right now in our training,” Meinerts added.

Pella Christian’s No. 2 runner on the day was Grant Dunsbergen, finishing 30th in 20:19. Jonathan Beltman placed 46th in 20:51, Scott Haveman was 54th in 21:22, and Samuel Dahm was 70th in 21:55. Sam Lensing placed 115th in 23:28, David Dykstra placed 148th in 25:23 and Alex Vink was 173rd in 28:42.

Running unattached, but from Pella Christian, were: 95. Gabriel Soler, 22:45, 142. Zack Shen, 24.57, 156. Kelvin Ouyang, 26:08.

“Our athletes had great races. It wasn’t a fast course for times. The course was very challenging and hilly,” said Jocelyn Meinders, Pella Christian head coach. “Our team looked very competitive, both in the boys’ race and girls’ race, with the other schools at the meet.

“Jacob had another strong showing resulting in a medal. Grant continues to compete well .”

Combining with Kuhlmann for Lynnville-Sully’s team score were Ben Trettin in 63rd at 21:33.23, Talon Woods in 64th at 21:35.59, Jake Brand in 66th at 21:39.05, and Nic Lirio in 89th at 22:39.49.

Others running for the Hawk boys were: Luke Jones in 107th at 23:13.18, Jim Trettin in 118th at 23:36.22, Bayley Morvant in 137th at 24:40.06, Lucas Smith in 163rd at 27:15.63, Kordell Mueller placed 168th in 27:51.68, and Lauri Ryypoe was 171st in 28:14.11.

“This course can be a real challenge, if you’re not able to run hills effectively, both uphill and downhill. It’s really like a roller coaster ride that doesn’t have much of a flat section, just always going up and down and turning corners. Add in a return of 80 degree temps and strong wind and all the runners were in for a battle tonight,” said Darin Arkema, Lynnville-Sully head coach. “We had a couple of tough workouts, running and lifting weights, earlier in the week, so kids maybe had some soreness or tight muscles and didn’t feel real fresh tonight.”

Jimmy Abel was the first Colfax-Mingo Tigerhawk to finish the race. Abel was 51st in 21:11.68, then Chris Stuva came across in 120th in 23:42.85. Ahn Hyeongyeop placed 135th in 24:33, Ryan McLain placed 138th in 24:44.74, and Adam Teed finished 160th in 26:50.93. K.C. Huffman was 164th in 27:76.69, and Will Dunsbergen was 170th in 28:01.19.

“This was not our best night, when considering times but this seemed to be the consensus of all coaches,” said Zach Tomas, Colfax-Mingo coach. “I think the warm and windy temperatures plus the hilly course led to the slower times. Even though times were not great the efforts from kids was and I think this meet will make us better moving forward.”

Tomas said the Tigerhawk squads were short-handed a bit. For the boys, Cameron Lantry was ill. For the girls, Carley Hodgson was gone on a family trip and Dakota Hostetter, who is ranked 10th in Class 1A, was playing volleyball.

“The rest of the team stepped up and kept us very competitive,” Tomas said.

Kennedi Hostetter led the Tigerhawk girls, earning the 23rd medal in a race featuring four other ranked runners. Kennedi Hostetter ran the 4K race in 18:30.89. Iva Moore finished 4th in 18:58.71, followed by Sara Lahart in 76th at 21:29.76, Donita Fatland in 87th at 22:02.81, and McKenzie Cogley in 101st at 23:12.55. Breawna Schroder was 103rd in 23:36.42, Cassie Craig was 110th in 23:56.72, and Jordan Atwood was127th in 26:43.19.

The varsity girls’ race was won by Iowa Class 3A’s top-ranked Abby Kohut-Jackson of Ballard in 15:55.11. Addie McKee of Davis County is ranked 12th in Class 2A, and she was second in 16:42.69.

Lynnville-Sully’s Alexa Vander Leest paced the Hawks to second place as a team. Vander Leest is ranked 30th in Class 1A, and ran the race in 17:21.71 for the sixth-place medal. Teammate Tara Vos, ranked 25th in 1A, placed 10th in 17:42.75.

Cori Rice was Lynnville-Sully’s No. 3 runner, finishing 14th in 18:03.09. Karli Roozeboom picked up the final medal of the race, placing 25th in 18:37.91. Elizabeth Van Manen took 46th in 19:41.79.

Others running for Lynnville-Sully were: 53. Line Ascanius, 20:10.53, 71. Kasiah Ehresman, 21:09.95, 77. Alexis Hardenbrook, 21:30.83, 86. Kristine Jaennette, 21:55.52, 88. Kristy Sevcik, 22:08.02.

“The girls got a little revenge from our home meet last week by beating Davis County tonight,” Arkema said. “In their last three races the girls have been first once and second twice, so they are racing strong. The boys had a long time since their last race at Ballard because we didn’t get their race in at our home meet. I saw a lot of improvement from them, especially on the hills. All of them were being aggressive downhill, and attacking uphill.”

Prairie City-Monroe’s girls placed two in the medals at their home meet. Rachel Peter led the Mustangs with an eighth-place finish in 17:35.90, followed by Rachel Stafford in 13th at 18:00.82.

Kayla Schakel finished 90th in 22:11.20 just ahead of PCM teammate Shelby Palm in 22:11.80. Amber Beener placed 125th in 26:11.56.

CMB’s Heather Jessen earned the 24th-place medal, running the 4K course in 18:32.53 to lead the Raiders to fifth place as a team. Chasity Moody finished 28th in 18:42.88, followed by Stephanie Twohey in 39th at 19:25.26, Mackenzie Klemme in 41st at 19:27.75, and Chantel Maxwell in 45th at 19:39.62.

Others running for CMB were: 49. Anna Jones, 19:54,74, 92. Courtney Clapper, 22:18.13, 106. Elizabeth Jones, 23:42.44, 114. Veronica Condon, 24:33.11, 115. Raine Young, 24:33.35, 121. Jacquelyn Staudt, 25:31.66.

Pella Christian was paced by Chloe Dembski, who captured the 21st-place medal in 18:25. Morgan Anderson finished 47th in 19:47, and Andrea Carballo placed 55th in 20:18. Damaris Worthington was 59th in 20:27, and Abby Van Soelen finished 74th in 21:19. Marina Shannon was 75th in 21:28, followed by Danielle Nardini in 112th at 24:21, and Brianna Van Donselaar in 130th at 26:53.