Men's cross-country: Area runners feast at Wildwood
Sep. 3—OTTUMWA — Diamond Trail. Lynnville-Sully.
Thursday, Sept. 16.
That's the course, the meet and the day that Zack Wise will be leading an entire team into action for the first time this season.
For now, Wise is almost a lone runner out on the course as one of just three athletes that was able to run this week for the Pekin High School boys cross-country team. Wise was the highest area male athlete to cross the finish line on Thursday at the Wildwood Park cross-country meet, finishing eighth in a time of 17:40.
Wise was one of only two Pekin runners to participate in Thursday's varsity boys cross-country race. Dylan Sobaski finished 87th for the Panthers, crossing the finish line in 24:27.
For the second straight meet, most of Pekin's varsity boys cross-country team could only watch from the sidelines on Thursday at Wildwood continuing to serve a multi-race suspension for an alleged incident that occurred during Pekin's preseason cross-country camp. Wise is eager to have his teammates back in uniform and back on the course at the Lynnville-Sully Invitational in two weeks.
"It's a different setting not having the rest of my team out there," Wise said. "Dylan's been taking it pretty well and is running hard. This whole season has been different so far for everybody, but we'll adjust to it.
"The boys are ready to eat. They're ready to go out there and run. They're ready to kick some butt with me out there. They've been training really hard over the summer. They're ready to go out there at Lynnville. They're all in pretty good shape. I'm excited to see what they can do."
Danville-New London, meanwhile, proved they will be a tough team for Pekin to deal with in the race for the Southeast Iowa Superconference title on Thursday placing five runners in the top 10 at Wildwood to easily claim the team championship with 23 points. Washington finished second with 68 points, paced by a winning run of 16:32 from Lane Sobaski.
Fairfield, who is hoping to challenge Washington in the Southeast Conference, finished third with 86 points in boys competition on Thursday. Brady McWhirter led the Trojans with a season-opening top 10 run, placing ninth in 17:49.
"I feel like I could have ran a bit better," McWhirter said. "I stopped at one point, but I just pushed myself. I had to get there. I know I will run a lot faster later this season. Washington is our main target. They beat us for the conference title last year. That's who we're aiming to take down this year."
Asa Canny's continuing run at achieving a bid to state nearly featured a top-10 run in his final Wildwood meet. The Ottumwa senior found himself in a three-man battle with Solomon Zaugg of Mediapolis and Gage Heyne of English Valleys for 10th place heading into the final stretch of the boys race.
Canny posted a season-best time of 17:52, edging Heyne by two seconds for 11th place. Zaugg, however, beat Canny to the finish line placing 10th in 17:49.
"I was dealing with some pain in my leg for most of the race. I'm not sure what happened there," Canny said. "To come through in under 18 minutes was an accomplishment. I knew I had to track down those two runners at the end of the race. I put anything I had left into that final run and battled it out with (Zaugg) right to the end. He might have gotten the best of me, but having that battle was really fun."
Ottumwa finished sixth overall in total points, scoring 127 finishing just five points behind North Mahaska for fourth place and three points behind Mediapolis for fifth. Anthony Reyman and Noah Trucano both cracked the top 25 for the Bulldogs with Reyman crossing the finish line in 18:59, placing 22nd, while Trucano finished the Wildwood race 24th in 19:05.
"It was a perfect night to run, which I think was reflected in the times," Ottumwa head boys cross-country coach Jeff Smith. "I told the boys to use that to their advantage. Use that little bit of extra adrenaline to help them come through in their only chance this season to run on their home course."
The Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont boys finished with 175 total points, good for seventh overall at Wildwood. Sam Seddon led the Rockets, breaking into the top 20 by crossing the finish line in 18:48, beating North Mahaska's Nate Sampson by 10 seconds for 20th place.
Karson Kirkpatrick led the Cardinal boys at the Wildwood meet, finishing 40th overall in 20:11 joining North Mahaska's Andy Knockel and Ottumwa's Jacob Mellin in a three-way battle for 38th place. Van Buren County teammates Isaiah Meek and Chase Clark again battled for position on Thursday, this time for 56th place, with Meek edging Clark by seven seconds in a time of 21:45 after running with Clark for position at Albia on Monday.
Kinnick Palmer placed 78th for the Sigourney boys, posting a time of 23:25.
— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.
