April 19, 2024

Lynnville-Sully cross country runners push hard for strong 2015 season

By Jocelyn Sheets

Members of the 2015 Lynnville-Sully High cross country teams are, left to right, front row, Lucas Jones and Canyon Kuhlmann; back row, Haley Breeden, Rebecca Morningstar, Kristine Jaennette, Alexis Hardenbrook, Marissa Vos, Kasiah Ehresman and Haley James. Not pictured: Shelby Foster and Hailey Scandridge. (Jocelyn Sheets)

Nine runners return for Lynnville-Sully High’s cross country program for 2015. Unfortunately, the split of personnel is not even for the Hawk boys and girls.

The Hawk boys have their top two runners back from a year ago. Senior Canyon Kuhlmann, a two-time state qualifier, and junior Lucas Jones are the only runners on the Lynnville-Sully boys’ team at this time.

“Maybe when school begins, we can recruit several others to come out so we have a squad for a team score in meets,” Lynnville-Sully coach Darin Arkema said. Arkema heads into his 13th year as head coach at Lynnville-Sully.

Seven runners are back on the course for the Hawk girls. They have a challenge ahead of them — a longer distance to run in 2015.

All girls will run 3.1-miles, or 5,000 meters, in cross country competition just like the boys. The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union made the move to have the girls move to 5,000 meter from 4,000 meters in January. It was the first change in distance for Iowa girls high school cross country since 2002.

“The change to the 5K distance may take a little getting used to, but I don’t see it as a big obstacle. I expect the girls to have a strong season, and be ready to contend for a third conference championship,” Arkema said.

Lynnville-Sully’s girls are two-time defending South Iowa Cedar League champions. They graduated two top runners from last year’s squad. They have all-conference runners back in senior Kasiah Ehresman and junior Haley James. Shelby Foster is the other senior returner and juniors Alexis Hardenbrook and Kristine Jaennette are back.

Sophomores Haley Breeden and Rebecca Morningstar round out the returning cast for the Hawk girls. They have two first-year runners in senior Marissa Vos, who was a state track qualifier in the 3,000-meters in the spring, and sophomore Hailey Scandridge.

“Our conference is always tough, and it got tougher with the addition of Colfax-Mingo this season. Colfax-Mingo qualified for the state cross country meet as a team last year,” Arkema said. “North Mahaska and Montezuma have good teams in the conference.”

The Hawk girls came up short of qualifying to the Class 1A state meet as a team for the second year in a row in 2014. That is a goal for the Hawks this season.

Kuhlmann has led the Hawk boys the past two seasons, earning All-SICL honors and qualifying for the state meet both years. He was second at the conference meet last year and Jones placed 16th. Kuhlmann was 10th at the district meet and placed 51st in the 1A state meet.

“Canyon is looking to finish his wonderful career with an individual conference championship. He’s been runner-up the past two years. A return to the state meet would make him the first boy from Lynnville-Sully to earn more than two state appearances,” Arkema said. “He has put the work in during the summer and is certainly the leader of our program.”

The Hawk cross country runners begin the season Tuesday in the Williamsburg Invitational. Lynnville-Sully hosts its invitational meet Sept. 17 at Diamond Trail Golf Club.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com