Central narrowly misses men’s cross country upset
STORM LAKE—The progress coach Joe Dunham was looking for in his Central College men’s cross country team surfaced Saturday in a triangular at Buena Vista University.
The Dutch came within a point of pulling a surprise against Luther College, last year’s second-place American Rivers finisher and an anticipated contender this year, falling 27-28. Host Buena Vista was a distant third with 85.
“It’s disappointing but overall we’re pleased,” Dunham said. “We’re getting there. It’s definitely an improvement from two weeks ago (a Sept. 12 triangular at Central). We ran a little bit more to our abilities and I really thought our competitiveness was better.
Central placed three runners in the top five and limited its spread in that group to 50 seconds.
Senior Nate Sanders (Waukee) was second in 26:34.7 in the season’s first 8,000-meter race after finishing 11th in the Sept. 12 meet. His four 2,000-meter split times varied by just 11 seconds as he held second place for the last half of the race. Ian Kelly of Luther was first in 26:24.6.
“I kind of put the brakes on him,” Dunham said. “I wanted him to go out a little bit slower today. So he kind of let the leader get away from him but he was able to come back on him in the second half of the race. That was a good sign.”
Will DeHaan (junior, DeWitt, Central DeWitt HS) followed in fourth (26:55.4) with Caleb Silver (sophomore, Conrad, BCLUW HS) fifth (27:02.6), Cutler Owens (junior, Runnells, Southeast Polk HS) eighth (27:15.9), Thatcher Krob (junior, Lisbon) ninth (27:25.5), Noah Jorgensen (freshman, Sidney) 13th (27:57.9) and Jack Sagan (junior, Riverside, Ill., Riverside-Brookfield HS) 14th (28:00.7).
Krob’s performance was a big leap, Dunham said.
“Thatcher had a great race,” he said. “He really moved up well. Cutler Owens had a good race as well. Caleb Silver did not feel good going into the race so I thought to see him compete like he did was great. He really ran hard to help the team.”
Central travels to Waverly Saturday, Oct. 10 for a triangular with defending league champ Wartburg College and Simpson College starting at 12:45 p.m.
“We’ve got a tough one,” Dunham said. “Simpson is much improved and Wartburg is very good. That’s going to be a battle.”
But Dunham said Saturday’s near-miss should give his squad a confidence boost.
“I think they’re starting to believe,” he said. “They’re learning, I think. They just have got to continue to trust the process.”
