It was another fast showing for the Pella cross country teams as they swept the varsity races in Williamsburg, while a last-minute change had the Eagles top runners come to the deep 2A meet and showcase their best performances of the year so far Tuesday.
For the #2 Dutch boys — down in the rankings due to inactivity last week, and the #1 in 3A girls, it was another reminder of the depth of both teams as the looming postseason quickly approaches. Pella’s girls saw #2 Mount Vernon-Lisbon for the first time head-to-head this year, and despite 19th ranked Autumn Blink resting due to illness, the girls in green and white captured their 4th consecutive first place trophy in a field that also included #4 in 3A Solon (final standings: Dutch 53, MVL 65, Solon 67). The Dutch produced season best times from Marissa Ferebee (2nd – 19:31.7), Jacie Trine (7th – 20:23.8), Lizzie Neumann (15th – 20:54.9), and Sophia Boonstra (21st – 21:23.6), and included a strong showing from Raegan Snieder (8th – 20:27.8).
Chase Lauman was meet medalist for the victorious Pella boys (16:26), with Canaan Dunham (3rd – 16:38) and Nathan Vander Waal (7th – 16:52.4) all not necessarily touching their season bests, but still providing top 10 finishes for their runaway victory. The most exciting news came with season best runs from Noah Schuknecht (15th – 17:13.2) and Zack Neumann (16th – 17:16.6), showing another reminder why the Dutch are considered a strong contender in October for postseason accolades. Pella’s 42 points outpaced the field, with Mount Vernon-Lisbon’s 9th ranked boys at 91 and 2A ranked Danville/New London (111) and Tipton (112) rounding out the top four.
Last week, Pella Christian Head Coach Mike Buchheit and AD Dan Branderhorst decided to send the Eagles’ top runners to the field that featured strong Class 2A state meet contenders, with the Eagles girls placing 6th and the boys 8th. Buchheit says the P.C. girls averaged a time faster than their state qualifying meet effort in 2021, while the boys were just five seconds off from their state meet pace in Class 1A last October. Bailey Vos was the top Eagles finisher for the girls (20th – 21:23.4), followed by Jaclyn Holmes (28th – 21:51.5), Joslyn Terpstra (34th – 22:12.8), Katy Roose (43rd – 22:48.2), and Amelia Boender (52nd – 23:46.5); P.C. was without regular No. 4 runner Emma DeBoef. The Eagles were within a minute of the team average speed of #4 in 2A Tipton.
The Eagles boys were paced by another strong race from Kaden Van Wyngarden (8th – 16:56.4), with Tysen DeVries (30th – 17:53.1), Ben Gosselink (31st – 17:57.2), Deacon Branderhorst (58th – 18:52.8), and Shaun Oosterheert (60th – 19:00) rounding out the team scoring for the #10 in 2A Eagles. Pella Christian was within 40 seconds of the team average of both #2 Tipton and #4 Danville, according to Buchheit, and all but one school ahead of them were ranked in this week’s Iowa Track Coaches Association poll.
Both the Dutch and Eagles are off until the final week of the regular season, with Pella heading to Hillcrest Academy south of Iowa City next Monday and the Eagles traveling to Honey Creek Resort State Park in Moravia on Tuesday, the 4th — the final races before the looming Little Hawkeye Conference meet on October 10th.