Sep. 4—Cross Country

Pella Dutch Invite

PELLA — Cross country teams flocked to the Central Dutch cross country course in Pella on Saturday morning for the Dutch Invitational as the top-ranked Pella teams made some early season statements while Oskaloosa and Pella Christian both ran well against some good competition.

The girls race got things started and it was a dominant effort from the Lady Dutch as they took home first place in the large schools division with just 15 points after their top six runners finished one through six with freshman Ruth Dunham leading the way in her first race by finishing first with a time of 20:01. Autumn Blink (2nd, 20:09), Marissa Ferebee (3rd, 20:09), Raegan Snieder (4th, 20:30), Lizzie Neumann (5th, 20:57) and Sophia Boonstra (6th, 20:58) were not far behind and all had strong races.

"Outstanding performance to begin the season, but we have plenty of room for improvement," Pella head coach Douglas Cutler said. "I'm extremely pleased with our fitness level. We do need to learn how to harness that fitness to maximize our race potential."

Oskaloosa took fifth in the large schools with 113 points and one top 10 finisher in Tierney Carer, who took seventh with a time of 21:08. Emmalee Wells-Stout (17th, 22:17), Evelyn Adam (26th, 23:41), Ella Walter (30th, 24:18) and Josie Adam (33rd, 24:36) made up the rest of the top five for the Indians.

"Finishing in the top 10 at this meet is a strong accomplishment," Oskaloosa head coach Michael Comfort said. "Tierney did another great job of attacking mile three to get in the top 10. Emmalee had another awesome performance. She was really aggressive to start the race and hung on tough. Her summer training is paying off. We also were at full strength today with freshman Ella Walter making her high school debut. She had a great race. Overall I am happy with how the girls competed."

In the small schools group, No. 14 (2A) Pella Christian ended up grabbing third with 82 points on the day. The Eagles had a pair of top 10 finishers in Bailey Vos (7th, 21:50) and Jaclyn Holmes (9th, 22:13). Maisy Meinders (21st, 25:12), Nora Lamb (22nd, 25:16) and Greta Vos (23rd, 25:18) made up the rest of the top five.

The boys took to the course shortly after the girls as the Dutch would complete the sweep by winning the large schools by 26 points with a total of 39 points. Canaan Dunham won the race with his time of 15:47 while Nathan VanderWaal (3rd, 16:15) and Aren Hellbusch (8th, 17:11) both finished in the top 10. Jake Huston (13th, 17:26) and Mason Gaulke (14th, 17:29) rounded out the top five for the Dutch.

"The guys did an outstanding job of working with each other to run a conservative first mile," Cutler said. "This allowed them to remain strong the entire race and perform as well as we did for our first race. I am confident we have faster times ahead of us."

The Osky boys came away with sixth place among the large schools with a good pack run with five guys finishing in under 19 minutes. Will Roach (22nd, 18:06) led the way while Reed Peterson (25th, 18:20), Reid Luck (29th, 18:39), Blake Henry (30th, 18:41) and Sam Nelson (41st, 18:58) made up the rest of the top five for the Indians.

"I challenged the boys this week to have a much stronger pack and they responded well," Comfort said. "I was really happy with how Reid Luck, Blake and Sam solidified our team score today. They were extremely gutsy and passed a lot of people in the last half mile. Reed Peterson had another fantastic race. Tactically he was brilliant. Last year we only had one guy under 19 minutes, so this was a good day for the boys team."

The 14th-ranked PC boys took home second place in the small school division by 16 points to No. 7 Mid-Prairie. The Eagles had three boys finish in the top 10 led by Sawyer Meinders (4th, 17:40), Paxton Bouma (7th, 18:23) and Deacon Branderhorst (10th, 18:48). Shaun Bos (11th, 19:04) and Tysen DeVries (13th, 19:22) weren't far behind and rounded out the top five for PC.

Pella runs on Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m. at Grinnell while Oskaloosa will be at Fairfield on Thursday at 5 p.m. and Pella Christian will head to the Iowa State course on Thursday at 5 p.m.

Volleyball

Oskaloosa goes 2-3 at CR Washington Tourney

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Oskaloosa volleyball team made the trip east on Saturday to compete in the always tough Cedar Rapids Washington Warrior Invitational. The Indians had an up and down day going 2-3 over their five matches.

The Indians would pick up close 2-0 wins over Linn-Mar (21-19, 23-21) and Davenport North (21-18, 21-18) while falling 2-0 to the likes of Solon (21-11, 21-16), Johnston (21-6, 21-12) and CR Kennedy (21-18, 21-16).

Johnston finished as the champs after going a perfect 6-0 on the day and defeating CR Xavier in the championship.

Oskaloosa (6-6, 0-1 LHC) gets back into tournament play on Saturday at 8 a.m. at Southeast Polk.

*Oskaloosa stats were unavailable at time of print

Colin Peters can be reached at 641-672-2581, by email at cpeters@oskyherald.com or on Twitter @ColinPetersOH.