Photo courtesy of Troy L. Hugen Photography

The ranked Pella Christian cross country teams will compete in their first of two meets this week on Tuesday, running at the Oskaloosa Invitational.

The Class 2A 13th ranked Eagle boys are coming off of an eighth place finish at the Gilbert meet on Thursday, while the 20th ranked girls took 12th in the loaded 16-team field. Running at Oskaloosa’s Edmundson Park a year ago, the Pella Christian boys took second place, and the girls finished in fourth place. Having competed against multiple ranked teams in larger classes, Eagles head coach Mike Buchheit says his team needs to focus on beating teams comparable to them in the rankings in Class 2A.

“What I tell the kids as we there’s a race within the race. So, we’re really trying to compete within the race and one on one to get positions and make sure that we’re edging teens out. So, that’s really kind of our next focus the next couple of weeks on the some of these smaller meets.”

The Oskaloosa Invitational for the Pella Christian cross country teams on Tuesday is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.