It was another weekend of strong performances for the Pella fall sports teams, with plenty of success on Saturday.

The top-ranked Dutch girls cross country team once again showed why they have high hopes and expectations for a threepeat, completely sweeping the varsity field by placing 1st through 7th individually and winning the meet with a perfect score of 15. Six of those athletes broke the previous school-based course record set by Central All-American and former All-State runner Caroline McMartin. Marissa Ferebee came within 10 seconds of the best-ever race run at Central with her win, torching the field with a 17:32.6. Elsie Brenneman (18:08.4), Ruth Dunham (19:06.8), Lizzy Vande Voort (19:14.4), Raegan Snieder (19:19.7), Mara Schiebout (19:19.9), and Carleigh Altwine (20:00.3) fueled the green and white dominance.

In the boys race, the No. 2 Dutch gave a push but couldn’t knock off defending champions Gilbert — teams who both bested their performances from the 2023 Heartland Classic showdown last fall. Pella scored 32 points to the Tigers 23, paced by a blazing 15.16.7 5K from defending 3A individual champion Canaan Dunham, who won the home meet title. Mason Gaulke placed 5th (16:28.6), Noah Schuknecht was 7th (16:34.7), and twins Devon and Kaiden Browne were 9th and 10th. Find full results here. Hear from members of the boys and girls cross country teams on Tuesday’s Lely Radio Sports Page. The Dutch are off until Thursday’s Gilbert invitational at Iowa State University.

Pella’s No. 9 in 4A volleyball team was 6-0 at the Glenwood Invitational, which included wins over #2 in 4A Bishop Heelan 2-1 (21-19, 13-21, 15-12), the hosting and No. 6 in 4A Rams 2-1 (21-14, 12-21, 15-11), No. 15 in 1A Stanton 2-0 (21-16, 21-13), Red Oak 2-1 (21-18, 11-21, 15-9), Harlan 2-0 (21-18, 21-18), and Council Bluffs Jefferson 2-0 (21-17, 21-12).

The Dutch improve to 13-2 overall and host #7 in 4A Dallas Center-Grimes to open the conference season during homecoming week on Tuesday.