Freshmen fill three top spots in Dutch men’s cross country lineup

Central Dutch Athletics

PELLA — Easton Sabala (Hermitage, Mo,. Hermitage-Wheatland HS) led a pack of three freshmen who finished in the top-five of the Central College men’s cross country team in the season-opening Dutch Invitational Friday night.

The Dutch scored 20 points to win the team title over Grinnell College’s 43 point-effort.

Sabala, who was the fourth-overall finisher and second collegiate runner across the line, finished in 20 minutes, 33 seconds. D.T. McDonald of the Jacuzzi Boys Athletic Club was the winner (20:15).

“Easton has had a lot of success in his young career,” coach Joe Dunham said. “He’s a tough kid and very good competitor. We’re going to see nothing but great things from him going forward.”

It took a late surge by Preston Kizer (junior, Dubuque) to pass teammate Jordan Toomey (senior, Runnells, Southeast Polk) at the line to finish third (20:40). Toomey was fourth in 20:41.

“I think he ran a minute faster than he did last year in this race,” Dunham said. “I was really happy with his improvement and Preston was really excited.”

Freshmen Brycen Wallace (Greenfield, Nodaway Valley HS) and Ben Lamparek (Willaismburg) scored as the No. 4 and No. 5 runners for Central after finishing fifth and sixth overall in 20:51 seconds, each.

Sophomores Jerry Lotz (Yokosuka, Japan/Nile C. Kinnick HS) and Nate Sanders (Waukee) closed out the top seven by finishing seventh (20:520 and eighth (20:55) overall.

“We’ve got a lot of new faces with 14 freshmen,” Dunham said. “I didn’t really know what to expect and I’m not sure exactly how good we are yet. I think we are certainly making progress and they are all buying into the system. Good things are going to happen, it’s just going to take some time to get into the groove.”

Central will compete at the Les Duke Invitational next weekend in Grinnell.