Terlouw gets first victory of season at English Valleys

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NORTH ENGLISH — Lynnville-Sully coach Darin Arkema asked his team to do something Tuesday night that very few cross country teams do across the state — compete on back-to-back nights.

But that’s what the Hawks did at the North English Invitational after competing at the Ballard Invitational on Monday night.

And it paid off.

Lynnville-Sully senior Mariah Terlouw took first on the girls side, while the boys team was third overall in a regular season meet that also served as the South Iowa Cedar League Meet.

Arkema said despite running for the second straight night, his team picked up right where they left off.

“The kids made no complaints or excuses before the race and ran with everything they had left,” Arkema said. “We were the only school tonight who raced the night before, and yet we came away with great individual and team performances.”

Terlouw won the girls race in a time of 17:52, while teammate Carly Van Wyk was eighth overall and fifth in the conference with a time of 19:15. Kelsi Vanden Hoek was 14th overall and eighth in the conference with a time of 20:13, while Maddison Jansen was 19th overall and ninth in the conference with 20:41.

“I told the girls before their race that all four of them would have a shot to earn all-conference honors with strong races and could all be in the top-20 of the whole race to earn a medal,” Arkema said. “That is exactly what they went out and did. Mariah backed up her strong race last night by winning her first meet of the season and being conference champion for the second time.”

On the boys side, Iowa Mennonite won the team race with 31 points. Keota was second with 72 points, while Lynnville-Sully was third of eight teams with 100 points.

“The guys came in shooting for Keota since they were the only conference school to beat us earlier in the year at Iowa Mennonite,” Arkema said. “We came up a little short tonight but were much closer than the first meeting.”

Andy Sneller led the boys team with a time of 18:23, putting him in third place overall and second in the conference. Bill Trettin was seventh overall and fourth in the conference with a time of 19:06.

Travis Morvant came in third for the team with a time of 19:59, good enough for 18th overall, while Blake Rozendaal was 34th in a time of 21:14. He took two minutes off of last year to be the fourth runner for the Hawks.

Nick Rozendaal was the final counting runner for the Hawks with a time of 21:25, good enough for 38th. Non-counting runners were Dave Trettin in 22:32 and Drew Shinkle in 23:57, good enough for 48th and 56th.

The Hawks are off until Monday at HLV, with some much needed rest after back-to-back nights of competition.

“The kids now need some easy run and rest days to make sure that we are getting recovered and staying healthy, especially during a busy Homecoming week,” Arkema said. “I couldn’t be more pleased with all of our performances these last two days.”