Pella Cross Country Teams Return to Fort Dodge
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The incredible tradition of Pella cross country and their district meet performance is the No. 7 moment on the countdown of the best moments from the past school year.

For the 14th consecutive season, the Lady Dutch earned a spot among the final 15 teams, and for the 14th time in 15 seasons, the Pella boys did the same after both placed 3rd at the district meet at Central College on October 24th.

For the first time all season, the Pella girls had the chance to finally gather together their best athletes — many of whom competed with injuries for the majority of the autumn, to claim the 3rd place spot at the district meet this past Thursday.

Senior Ellie Roorda said after the race the effort was appreciated and showed how close this group of distance runners has grown over the years — especially after teammate Abby Cutler battled through injury to run and others nursed themselves back to health over the course of the season.

“It’s really special because this whole season, we really haven’t been able to run together–I believe we’ve only ran all seven of us in one race,” Roorda said. “So it’s really nerve racking since we haven’t done that before, but we knew what we could do and believed in our team and each other.”

Pella would outperform their seeding on the girls side at state, coming in as the 14th ranked team and placing 8th in Class 3A; the boys, led by Josiah Wittenberg, who earned All-State honors for the second consecutive season with a 6th place finish as an individual, would go on to place 10th as a team.