Indianola Girls won the Knoxville Cross Country Invitational while Winterset ran away with the boys title Tuesday night at Pine Knolls Golf Club. The Indians placed five runners in the top ten led by Emily Naughton, who placed 2nd behind Twin Cedars Rylee Dunkin in a time of 20:56. Dunkin’s time was 20:30. Other Indianola runners in the top ten were Taylor Hoger in 3rd at 21:12, Bree Tenges in 5th in 21:21 withy Lead Hartford in 7th with a time of 21:49, and Remy Sivertsen 22:01, Knoxville was 5th overall led by Natalie Collins 11th with a time of 22:36. Pella Christian ran a 2nd team at Knoxville and placed 6th. The Eagles were led over the line by Julia Shmaics placing 31st in a time of 24:21. Twin Cedars and Melcher-Dallas did not have complete teams and were not a part of the team standings. For the Saints, freshman Hailey Stegman placed 36th in a time of 25:01. Winterset easily won the boys race placing all five runners in the top ten, however Knoxville’s Isaac Rankin continued his brilliant freshman year by placing 2nd overall in a time of 17:25. Rankin told KNIA/KRLS Sports while a freshman, he knows he has to stay patient and still put in the work to get to where he wants to be.
Rankin: “It’s a good feeling and hard work paying off and knowing when you’re a senior, you’ll be faster.”
Pella Christian also ran a second team and did not have enough runners to score, but were led over the line by Paxton Bouma in 20:02. Knoxville and Pella Christian both will head to Centerville for their respective next meets on Tuesday, Indianola Girls are off until next Thursday at Fort Dodge, Twin Cedars and Melcher-Dallas will run at Chariton on Thursday.