A special fall season potentially awaits the #3 Pella boys and #13 ranked girls cross country teams with a lot of returning athletes motivated to improve upon their 2021 finishes.

Pella Senior Chase Lauman enters the 3A individual rankings 4th, and was on pace to earn an All-State finish in Fort Dodge last October before a mid-race illness left him way behind the lead pack and likely dropped the team from a 3rd place trophy to 4th. Lauman used that heartbreak as extra fuel and had a strong track and field campaign, running on the medal-winning 4×800 and distance medley relays, earning 7th in the 1600 meters, and running in the 800 among 3A’s best, and he’s now focused on making a leap in cross country.

Junior Jacie Trine started 2021 with a preseason, non-running injury that disrupted her training one year after finishing at the 2020 state meet as the top runner for the Dutch. Pella narrowly missed a team bid to state as well for the first time in 15 years. Coming into the new fall healthy, Trine has her eyes set on a return to form and big goals for the whole girls group throughout the year.

Click here for a full interview with Lauman and Trine.

Several athletes from Pella open 2022 in the preseason individual rankings:

#3 in 3A Boys:
#4 Chase Lauman
#18 Nathan Vander Waal

#13 in 3A Girls:
#5 Raegan Snieder
#23 Autumn Blink

Pella opens the cross country season Saturday at Cedar Rapids Prairie.