If the #2 in 3A Pella Dutch cross country program is to achieve a truly historic weekend, they will have some top competition to overcome in the final event to be held at Lakeside Golf Course this weekend. But the boys harriers in green and white appear poised to hold up their end of what could be a Tulip City sweep of the 3A podium. Pella shocked Norwalk and DCG on their way to the school’s first boys Little Hawkeye Conference team championship in a decade, and followed that up with another stellar race at the Pella Sports Park for needed momentum into what appears to be a dual to the top of the trophy stand.

It’s definitely a two-horse race for both the team and individual titles, and it’s unfair to say anyone is necessarily favored in either, but Pella will certainly factor into the final say in each instance. All eyes were on the back-and-forth held between the Dutch and the Gilbert Tigers, who appear to be poised for their own multiple-year run at the top of Class 3A — it’s a matter if Pella will make them wait a year. The two teams traded victories, with the green and white winning what has been the ultimate 3A state meet predictor over the past three or so years at Ballard on September 11th, only for the young and rising Tigers to pounce back and dominate the elite Heartland Classic at Central College just six days later.

Coach Doug Cutler has emphasized that no matter which team or athlete ultimately wins, the others put together a championship season. But he also knows his experienced Dutch squad will want to etch their names alongside the girls at the top of the class and in the record books.

“It should be a very close battle, I mean, Gilbert is amazingly talented. We know their names, we’ve been watching their times closely all year, particularly since the Ballard invitational — when we won a tiebreaker against them. We raced them at the Heartland Classic and they bruised our ego a little bit and we thought we’d be a little closer there, as they had a fantastic race and we had a good race, and the way the Heartland Classic is, 96 points kind of balloons very, very quickly. But I do think it’s a very close race and both teams are outstanding. In any other given year, either of them could be state champions. I don’t think any of them are going to be—disappointed maybe, but certainly ashamed in any way, shape, or form, or not hitting their head, if the other team wins it because Coach Thomas is a fantastic coach and those kids are running out of their minds sooner than we thought they would.”

Read more here. Pella races at 2:30 this Saturday in Fort Dodge in the Class 3A state championship race.