The Pella cross country team continued a tradition of excellence when both teams earned their bids to return to Fort Dodge and the state meet after impressive performances at the Pella Sports Park Wednesday.
No. 2 Pella dominated the boys race to earn a district championship and the unranked girls raced by two teams in the top 20 to place 2nd overall at the state qualifying meet. It’s the 15th time in 16 seasons Pella will participate in the final race of the season.
Tony Schmitz was the individual boys district champion (16:33.7), with four other Dutch athletes earning All-District honors, including Chase Lauman (16:54.9) and Nathan Vander Waal (16:55.7) in 7th and 8th place respectively, Akira Lopez in 11th (17:04.29) and Josiah Wittenberg in 13th (17:09.07).
Full Pella boys interview, as heard on the KNIA/KRLS Radio Sports Page Wednesday evening:
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Pella’s girls placed 2nd as a team to No. 1 in 3A Ballard, leapfrogging No. 10 Mount-Vernon and team to watch Carlisle in the standings. The Lady Dutch earned their 15th consecutive bid to Fort Dodge in the process, led by Jacie Trine and her 6th place finish (19:58), Autumn Blink in 10th (20:05), and Abby Cutler in 11th (20:10). Senior Ashley Blommers was the 4th athlete from Pella to cross the line, and by doing so, contributed to her 4th straight trip to the state meet.
Full Pella girls interview:
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Knoxville had two individuals earn state qualifying bids at the Pella Sports Park. Sophomore Norah Pearson placed 4th (19:24.31) in the girls race featuring the top three individual runners in Class 3A, earning a 2nd consecutive trip to Fort Dodge.
Seth Walraven had a strong race to finish 14th (17:11.05), earning an individual state qualifying spot by eight seconds.
An interview with Pearson and Walraven airs on Wednesday, October 28th at 6 p.m. on the KNIA/KRLS Radio Sports Page.
Photo gallery:
The Pella and Knoxville cross country teams traveled to the Pella Sports Park for the 2020 3A state qualifying meet on 10-21.
Posted by KNIA KRLS on Wednesday, October 21, 2020
Boys full results: https://www.iahsaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Pella-3A-SQM-CC-Boys-Results10.21.pdf
Girls full results: https://ighsau.org/upl/downloads/library/xc-2020-pella3a.pdf
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