It’s easy now to celebrate the championships and historic success of the Pella cross country team — they’ve gone on arguably the greatest two-year run of any high school in state meet history in a single class. But it may also be easy to forget that both teams recently missed the final race of the season, including the incredible girls seniors just two years ago.

Pella Head Coach Doug Cutler says the Class of ’24 has proven critical in rebuilding a culture that felt a bit more challenging as they came in during the 2020 season.

Seniors Nathan Vander Waal (3rd overall in 3A) and Stephen Gaul (39th) were key members of the runner up Dutch and Vander Waal has earned back-to-back All-State finishes, while Autumn Blink (17th) finished as a four-year qualifier and Macy Schroeder (49th in 2023) was the 5th runner across the line for the back-to-back champions in 2022 and 2023. Sophia Boonstra and Jacie Trine were key members of the 2022 championship Dutch as well, and Tess Paulsen was an alternate after helping Pella qualify last season.