The Pella Christian, Knoxville, Twin Cedars Cross Country teams hit the road Tuesday to compete in the Oskaloosa Meet. The newly-ranked #20 team in Class 1A Eagles boys brought home a fifth place finish while the girls didn’t qualify for team scoring. Knoxville’s Girls and Boys Cross Country teams both posted 10th place finishes. Twin Cedars didn’t qualify for team scoring in either meet.

Kaden Van Wyngarden led the Pella Christian boys squad to their fifth place finish, coming in 15th in the boys’ meet. Eagles’ first year cross country runner Joslyn Terpstra told KNIA/KRLS Sports that her finish in her first meet of the season at Davis County was a great building block for both her teammates and herself.

“First meet, it was really challenging and it was also a really difficult course. So, we were all just trying to make it through and stay positive even though that’s really hard while you are running. But it was awesome and really helped our team gain a lot of confidence.”

Terpstra built on that strong start for the Eagles with a second place finish Tuesday at Oskaloosa with a time of 20:59.6.  The Panthers girls squad got a strong race from Natalie Collins, who ran a season’s best time by nearly 1 minute. Girls Coach Mikayla Splavec tells KNIA/KRLS Sports Natalie Collins, and Janie and Olivia Maasdam have been among her top runners all season.

“All three of those girls have been some solid varsity runners for us. Also Faith Rozenboom has also really showed up again this year, and she is running some fast times. Anna Butel hasn’t been at many meets yet because she’s also doing volleyball this season, but so far what we’ve seen from practices and workouts she’ll really help us too.”

Seth Walraven led the Knoxville boys squad posting a 13th place finish. Rylee Dunkin of Twin Cedars led the way among all competitors in the girls meet tonight winning her 2nd meet of the season. The lone boys runner for the Sabers, Andrew Feel finished 81st in the meet.

Click Here for full results from the meet

The Pella Christian and Twin Cedars Cross Country squads will hit the ground running again on Thursday in the Lynnville-Sully meet at Diamond Trails Golf Course in Lynnville. Knoxville is off until next Tuesday when they compete in the Newton Invitational.