Pella Christian Boys Cross Country 5th, Girls 6th at Loaded DCG Meet

The Pella Christian cross country teams opened their 2024 seasons Tuesday night at the highly competitive Dallas Center-Grimes meet, with the boys team finishing fifth place and the girls team taking sixth.

Leading the Class 2A #9 ranked Eagle boys to their fifth place finish was Sawyer Meinders. The junior conquered the course in 16:55.5 to take fourth place individually. Senior Deacon Branderhorst was the second Pella Christian runner to cross the finish line, taking 27th in 18:31.3. Just under forty seconds separated the Eagles other five varsity runners in the meet, with Will Vanden Bosch taking 40th (19:13.5), Logan Gallaher finishing 47th (19:24.5), Griffin Stoltz claiming 48th (19:24.7), Eli Hoksbergen taking 53rd (19:37.5), and Joel Pogany finishing 59th (19:49.5). 

Two-time state qualifying junior Bailey Vos led the Class 2A #15 Pella Christian girls to their sixth place finish, claiming 16th place with a time of 21:30.3. Hayley Rens was second across the finish line for the Eagles, taking 29th in 22:36.1. Rounding out the Eagles’ scoring was Julia Schmalcs in 43rd (23:14.5), Maisy Meinders in 50th (23:48.8), Sophia Slagter in 59th (24:20.4), Greta Vos in 69rd (24:52.7), and Nora Lamb in 93rd (26:04.3).

Find full results from the Dallas Center-Grimes meet here. The Pella Christian cross country teams will next run on Saturday in the Pella Invitational at Central College at 9 am.

Eagles Volleyball Falls to Ranked Indianola Squad in Conference Opener

The Pella Christian volleyball team opened Little Hawkeye Conference play Tuesday night, but were swept 3-0 in their first home match of the season against Class 5A #6 Indianola.

Despite a strong start that saw the Eagles jump out to a 5-0 lead in the first set, the momentum faded as the Indians raced ahead for a 25-17 win. Indianola controlled the second set of the match, building up an early 9-1 advantage en route to a 25-14 victory. In a back and forth third set, Pella Christian held a late 21-19 lead, but the Indians rallied to score the next six points to claim a 25-21 win in the set and the overall match. Brynn Runner and Chloe Huisman paced the Eagles offense on the night, with Runner recording a team high 15 assists and Huisman posting seven kills. Addison Bandstra, Brynn Roozeboom, and Rachel Kacmarynski each recorded three total blocks for the Pella Christian defense, while Faith Kacmarynski had two of the team’s four aces in the loss.

The Eagles volleyball team falls to 4-3 overall and 0-1 in conference play on the season and will look to bounce back in a home quadrangular against Davis County, Pleasantville, and Van Buren on Thursday at 5:30 pm.