On Thursday, October 18th, both cross country teams headed out to a tough Central College course for districts. The weather was almost perfect, right around the 60’s and little to no wind. Mud only played a small factor in the race. The hard course and steep competition set up for a hard battle for the Cubs.
Some of the top teams in the state were there: Pella, DCG, Carlisle, and Oskaloosa. The top three teams after the meet were Carlisle in first, Pella in second and DCG in third for the boys. For the girls it was DCG, Pella and Norwalk.
The boys team ended up 9th and the highest placer was Dalton Baker at 31st with a time of 18:20. The girls team ended up 8th with the highest placement being Elie Tuhn at 32nd with a time of 22:30. So unfortunately the meet didn’t go as planned, and no runners advanced to state. But it was a great season full of memories!
“The kids ran hard,” said Coach Christiansen. “Eliana put herself in good position early, running faster splits for the one mile and tw mile then she has all year, but she just couldn’t hold on to them.”
“The girls team had such a great year, but realistically we are probably more of a state team next year. We really relied on some young talent and some girls that hadn’t run cross country before. It’s a learning curve, and they came a long way this year. The positive is six of the seven runners that ran at districts are back next year and will now know what to expect.”
“For the boys it was the same as its been all year,” said Coach Christiansen. “Key guys that we have to have, have just been injured. We tried resting them in the hopes that they would be good to go at districts, but they just couldn’t do it. Elliot Frieders, Caleb Powlovich and Jacob Sanders all have really good races, but it takes five scorers, and in a meet this tough we just didn’t have enough.”
Overall it was a great season, and it’s looking like next year the Cubs hope to bounce back even better and stronger!
Article by Kaleb Angell.
