The Little Hawkeye Conference cross country teams converged in Dallas Center on Monday afternoon to compete amongst each other to begin the postseason.

It was the #2 in 4A Norwalk boys edging #1 in 3A Pella and the #1 in 3A Dutch girls narrowly defeating #16 in 4A Indianola for the league championships.

The Warriors’ signature pack was too deep for even the talented Pella boys to overcome, paced by Donovan Card (2nd – 16:17.5) and Jack Brown (4th – 16:25.9). Will Chase (7th – 16:43.4) and Noah Burhow (8th – 16:52.1) were also among the scoring group that all finished in the top 10.

Chase Lauman of Pella was the individual conference champion (16:06.5), and his teammates Canaan Dunham (3rd – 16:21.2) and Nathan Vander Waal (5th – 16:27.3) were top five finishers.

The Dutch girls were able to overcome challenges from Indianola and Dallas Center-Grimes, due, in part, to an outstanding race by Marissa Ferebee, who won the individual girls’ title with a time of 19:17.3 — nearly a full minute ahead of runner-up Breelee Mauro of Norwalk (20:11.5).

A runner-up group for the Indians lost by just three points to Pella, and were led by Grace Foster (5th – 20:37.2), Bree Tenges (8th – 20:43.9), Tayler Hoger (10th – 20:50.5), and Emily Naughton (12th – 21:03.2). Indianola’s boys placed 4th, led by Reed Robbins in 14th (17:10.9). The Warriors girls were 5th as a team.

Some of the best ever performances in school history were made by Pella Christian, who placed 5th in the boys overall race with their #10 in 2A ranked team and 4th among the girls with their 17th in 2A squad. Kaden Van Wyngarden was 10th to earn All-Conference honors for the Eagles (16:54.8). The Eagles’ girls were paced by Bailey Vos (16th – 21:07.3), Joslyn Terpstra (21st – 21:30.1), and Jaclyn Holmes (22nd – 21:31.8), and their recent success may bolster them further in the 2A rankings.

Click here for full results. Next up for all teams is the state qualifying meets next week.