The Norwalk boys cross country team finished 11th at Friday’s prestigious Roy Griak Invitational in St. Paul and the Warrior volleyball team went 4-1 at the Nevada Tournament on Saturday.
Competing at the Roy Griak meet for the second straight year, the Norwalk boys placed 11th out of 55 teams in the Gold 5K high school division at Les Bolstad Golf Course on the University of Minnesota campus. The Norwalk girls finished 49th out of 53 schools at the same meet.
Running in a field of 525 participants, the Warrior boys placed seven runners in the top 128 and were the second-highest finisher among nine Iowa teams in attendance. Dowling Catholic won the meet with a score of 153 and the Warriors were 11th with a 395. Norwalk’s top two runners were Donovan Card in 55th place with a time of 16:50 and Jack Brown a second behind in 56th. Noah Buhrow, Will Chase and Teegan Kralik also finished in a tight pack, placing 96th, 98th and 100th.
Norwalk boys cross country coach Chad Larson says the Warriors were hoping for a top-10 finish in St. Paul, adding that they feel pretty good about 11th. Larson calls it an incredible opportunity and experience for the Norwalk athletes to compete in the amazing atmosphere of the Griak Invite, which includes university and college races as well. He says the competition is elite from many different states.
“You’ve got over 500 kids racing together in one single race that are all really, really good,” Larson said. “Just being able to run through that big of a crowd and just learning how to maneuver through that many people that are the same capability as you are is a great opportunity for the kids.”
The Norwalk girls placed 49th with a team score of 1,311, paced by Breelie Mauro’s 119th-place time of 21:03. Pearl Brown came in 292nd and Maya Butler was 334th out of 476 runners.
Notable individual efforts by Iowa runners included Ballard’s Paityn Noe and Dowling’s Jackson Heidesch both in second place. Iowa City High’s Ford Washburn placed third.
VOLLEYBALL:
The Norwalk volleyball team had a very good day in Nevada Saturday, defeating two state-ranked teams in going 4-1 and tying for third place in the tournament.
The Class 4A 14th-ranked Warriors were unbeaten in pool play, winning by 2-0 scores over Bondurant-Farrar and West Marshall and outlasting 4A No. 6 Clear Creek-Amana in three competitive sets, 21-18, 20-22, 15-13.
Then in bracket play, Norwalk swept Class 2A No. 15 Lake Mills 21-15, 21-13 before losing a three-set semifinal vs. 3A No. 10 Nevada, 21-16, 15-21, 8-15.
Now 15-6 overall, the Warriors were led statistically Saturday by Noelle Sutcliffe’s 58 kills and five aces on 35-of-38 serving. Ava McKay added 22 kills, Liz Iverson had 102 assists, Grace Dehmer tallied 58 digs and Dakota Poen served 33-for-36 with three aces.