Oskaloosa Middle School Teams Take Fourth at Muddy Home Meet
OSKALOOSA — Chessa San and Kinnick Reisetter led the way as Oskaloosa’s middle school cross country teams each finished fourth on a wet, muddy course at the Oskaloosa Invitational on Sept. 15 at Edmundson Park.
The girls scored 113 points to place fourth among eight teams. The boys finished fourth in a nine-team field with 100 points.
Coach Betsy Luck pointed to improvement from last season and the teams’ growing ability to run in groups. She reported gains ranging from 30 seconds to more than two minutes among returning eighth graders compared with their performances at last year’s home meet.
San paced the girls with a sixth-place finish in 10 minutes, 46.6 seconds. The eighth grader improved her time from last year by 30 seconds and moved into second place on Oskaloosa’s girls’ top-10 list for the home course.
Her performance also ranks fifth on the program’s girls’ 1.5-mile top-10 list.
Behind San, Oskaloosa’s next four scoring runners finished within 31.2 seconds of one another, helping the Indians secure fourth place.
Alaina Burgey finished 26th overall in 12:06.6, just ahead of Lauryn Koehler, who placed 27th in 12:07.5. Luck said both eighth graders ran faster than they did at last year’s meet.
Seventh grader Lydia Netland followed in 30th overall at 12:12.7. Brielle Boender completed the scoring group with a 40th-place finish in 12:37.8.
Mariah Mackerl finished 43rd in 12:42.7, and Gemma Lahner placed 80th in 15:12.0.
Luck said the girls looked strong four weeks into the season, with the close grouping of the second through fifth runners contributing to the team’s result.
Pella won the girls’ team title with 37 points, edging Williamsburg by one point. Newton finished third with 74.
Reisetter again set the pace for Oskaloosa’s boys, finishing in 10:11.9. He placed 12th overall and contributed 11 points to the Indians’ team score.
His time was 1 minute, 38 seconds faster than last year’s performance and moved him into seventh place on Oskaloosa’s boys’ top-10 list for the home course.
A close group behind Reisetter helped keep the Indians’ score down.
Douglas Lappin finished 21st overall in 10:34.9. Griffin Stock followed in 23rd at 10:46.1, Jackson McHawes placed 24th in 10:55.9, and Jenner Sisul took 25th in 10:58.3.
Those four runners finished within 23.4 seconds of one another. Luck said the boys are learning to run in packs and that the approach is helping their racing strategy and finishing times.
Tayven Wyatt finished 27th overall in 11:04.3, while Silas Chilcote placed 39th in 11:29.1 to complete Oskaloosa’s first seven finishers.
Additional Oskaloosa finishers included Easton Holdsworth in 11:37.5, Boston Herny in 11:41.5, Joseph Wilke in 12:41.5 and Abraham Arellano in 12:51.6.
Grant Denburger finished in 13:43.0, followed by Matthew Rosvold in 13:45.2, Levi Barclay in 13:48.8, Zaiden Clark in 15:20.7 and Nathan Good in 15:37.4.
Pella also won the boys’ title, scoring 49 points. Williamsburg placed second with 74, and Newton finished third with 87, leaving Oskaloosa 13 points behind third place.
Luck thanked the spectators who came out to cheer on the Indians despite the wet conditions.
Oskaloosa is scheduled to return to competition Tuesday, Sept. 22, at Mount Pleasant.
