Cross country athletes from central and southeast Iowa converged at the annual Central College Invitational Saturday morning.

Pella built off of a strong opening weekend in the large school races, placing second behind talented 4A Norwalk teams for both boys and girls.

Josiah Wittenberg (pictured above) followed up his quad race win with another meet victory, running 16:26.5 on the difficult Central College course to lead the No. 5 ranked Dutch. Tony Schmitz placed 4th with a time of 16:57.5 and Chase Lauman clocked in at 17:15.9 for 8th individually.

The No. 15 in 3A Lady Dutch were paced by Abigail Cutler and a runner-up finish at 21:03.8, fellow senior Ashley Blommers was 11th at 22:07.8, and freshmen Autumn Blink (22:11.2) and Macy Schroeder (22:22.4) were 15th and 17th respectively.

Knoxville placed 9th in the large school division in the boys race. Junior Max Purvis (34th – 9:02.9), Sophomore Kaden McGill (51st – 20:08.2), and Junior Carson Irving (56th – 20:26.3) were the top finishers for the Panthers boys. Knoxville was 8th in the girls competition minus All-Stater Norah Pearson, with freshmen Natalie Collins (32nd – 24:04.5), and Juniors Olivia Maasdam (41st – 25:36.3) and Taylor Jones (42nd – 25:45.3) topping the Panthers lineup.

Pella Christian raced in tough fields in the small school races later in the morning, finishing behind 4th in 2A Mid Prairie, No. 9 in 2A Des Moines Christian, and No. 12 in 1A ACGC in the boys race. Kaden Van Wyngarden was the top Eagles boys runner in 15th overall at 19:29.7, followed by a 17th place finish for Brayton Juffer (19:34.9) and 22nd place from Micah DeHaan (20:06.8).

The Eagles girls, down their normal No. 2 runner, placed seventh in a field featuring the Class 2A top-ranked Mid-Prairie Golden Hawks and possibly the state of Iowa fastest girls’ runner Danielle Hostetler, and ranked Panorama (8th in 2A) and ACGC (8th in 1A). Jaclyn Holmes was 9th individually at 22:12.3, followed by Savannah Oosterheert (27:23.7 – 37th) and Karis Fikkert (27:53.5 – 39th).

Pella is off from competition until September 22nd, while Pella Christian returns to action Thursday at the Gilbert Invitational in Ames. Knoxville heads to Grinnell for competition Tuesday.

FULL RESULTS:
Large School Boys: http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=71914
Large School Girls: http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=71915
Small School Boys: http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=71916
Small Schools Girls: http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=71917

PHOTO GALLERY: