Timberwolves finish season at Lake Icaria

CORNING — A cool and breezy day at Lake Icaria was the site for a 1A state qualifying cross country meet in which 17 southwest Iowa schools attended.

The top two teams, as well as the top 10 finishers, would punch their ticket to run at Kennedy Park in Fort Dodge. 3A and 4A schools will run on Oct. 29 and 1A and 2A schools will run on Oct. 30.

Central Decatur won the boys race with St. Albert taking second place, for the girls race St. Albert won and Central Decatur took second.

Kya Newton was the first Timberwolf to cross the finish line. With a time of 26:11, Newton took 28th place.

Olivia Kathikar, Victoria Fletchall and Sierra Pearson were the next Southwest Valley runners to finish the race with respective finishes of 32nd, 36th and 37th. The trio of Timberwolves each set a personal best time at lake Icaria.

Karissa Richey finished 40th with a time of 31:22.

Averyle Butcher and Alice Williams finished right after Williams, with Butcher having a course best for herself with a time of 35:30 and Williams finished her Timberwolf career with a personal record time of 35:58.

Only three boys ran the hills for Southwest Valley on Thursday.

Ethan James was the highest finisher for the Timberwolves, with a 58th place finish and a time of 23:20.

Deacon Ganfield, who finished 74th, ran his best time of the season with a 27:35.

Devyn Fasce, the only junior on the boys team, had a time of 35:00 which is his best time at Lake Icaria.

“Our kids ran well all year,” Southwest Valley coach Jason Hults said. “They continued to improve and push themselves each week. Most ran new PR’s or season best times in the last few meets of the season, which is what we work for, to run our best times at the end of the year.”

The future is bright for Southwest Valley if the dozen underclassmen runners decide to return to Timberwolf cross country next season.

“Our team overall is young, with 12 freshman or sophomore runners, and only two seniors leaving us,” Hults said. “Gabe Fuller and Alice Williams were both first year seniors on the squad, and ran well throughout the year. We will miss them for sure, but look forward to seeing what the rest of the team can do next season.”

ELWOOD NEARLY PUNCHES TICKET

Mount Ayr sophomore Karly Elwood finished 11th, the highest placing runner from area schools in both the boys and the girls race.

The Raiders finished fourth in the girls race.

Makenna Jones finished 16th with a time of 23:44 and Karlie Larsen finished in 18th with a time of 24:00.

Natalie Schaefer, Lauren Triggs and Andrea Sickels rounded out Mount Ayr’s run with respective finishes of 24th, 34th and 39th

Mount Ayr was an incomplete team for the boys race.

Freshman Adan Trujillo was the first Raider to cross the finish line in the boys race. Trujillo finished 43rd with a time of 20:59.

Willl Newton and Ashtyn Benesh were the other Mount Ayr runners in the boys 5K. Newton had a time of 21:21 and Benesh ran a 22:08.

DIAGONAL BOYS PLACE EIGHTH

Carter Lumbard paced the Maroon effort around Lake Icaria with a time of 20:52, which placed the sophomore 40th.

Alex Baker, in his last cross country race for Diagonal, placed 50th.

Garrett Stephens, Jace Lamb, Skyler Stamps and Scotty Nohm ran together for the majority of the race and also finished in close proximity together with respective times of 23:55, 24:15, 24:58 and 25:04.

VALENCIA AND DRISKELL SOAR FOR EAGLES

“Across the board all the kids ran very well and improved their times from when we ran there a month ago and that’s all you can ask for,” East Union head coach Rich Bryson said. “There was some outstanding talent there to compete against.”

Jillian Valencia and Jacob Driskell were the highest placing East Union runners with finishes of 12th place (23:12) and 22nd (19:33) respectively.

“I encouraged both of them as well as all the runners to use this experience to move forward and to try to improve for next year and come back stronger,” Bryson said.

Aaleah Boles and Hayden Waigand finished within four seconds of each other, with 26:56 and 27:00 being their times.

Jaden Froit, in her last race as a member of East Union cross country, finished 43rd.

Seth Ripperger finished 49th in his first appearance at a high school cross country state qualifying meet.

Derek Albretchsen and Peyton Long were the other East Union runners at Lake Icaria, and they had times of 23:06 and 23:24 respectively.

GOMEZ REPRESENTS LENOX

Mizael Gomez was the only runner for Lenox, he placed 51st with a time of 22:06

1A State Qualifier

At Lake Icaria (Corning)

Girls meet

Team scoring (top 2 to state) — 1. St. Albert, 29; 2. Central Decatur, 46; 3. Tri-Center, 63; 4. Mount Ayr, 81; 5. Southwest Valley, 132.

Individual state qualifiers – 1. Reese Duncan, St. Albert, 21:12; 2. Carley McKeever, St. Albert, 21:29; 3. Tyler Tingley, 21:35; 4. Harrisen Bevan, Central Decatur, 21:40; 5. Quincey Schneckloth, Tri-Center, 21:45; 6. Grace Steinmetz, Heartland Christian, 21:51; 7. Becca Cody, Riverside, 21:58; 8. Brenna Smith, St. Albert, 22:21; 9. Hadley Bell, Central Decatur, 22:28; 10. Aniston Jones, Central Decatur, 22:34.

Southwest Valley (132) — 28. Kya Newton, 26:11; 32. Olivia Kathikar, 26:59; 36. Victoria Fletchall, 29:35; 37. Sierra Pearson, 26:56; 40. Karissa Richey, 31:22; 41. Averyle Butcher, 35:30; 42. Alice Williams, 35:38.

Boys meet

Team scoring (top 2 to state) — 1. Central Decatur, 37; 2. St. Albert, 47; 3. Tri-Center, 85; 4. Riverside, 114; 5. Heartland Christian, 140; 6. Lamoni, 159; 7. East Mills, 193; 8. Diagonal, 212; 9. Stanton, 215.

Individual state qualifiers — 1. Colin Lillie, St. Albert, 16:53; 2. William Gillis, Central Decatur, 17:17; 3. Vincent Carcamo, Central Decatur, 17:33; 4. Nicolas Milner, Heartland Christian, 17:38; 5. Cole Jorgenson, Sidney, 17:42; 6. Mason McCready, Riverside, 17:44; 7. Gunner Smith, Central Decatur, 17:49; 8. Sean McGee, Tri-Center, 17:51; 9. Hadyn Piskorski, St. Albert, 17:54; 10. Tyson McDole, Lamoni, 17:59.