Indian Harriers capture 1st and 2nd place finishes
Oskaloosa Indians
The Oskaloosa Cross Country team competed at the Eddyville Invitational tonight. The boys team captured a 2nd place finishing behind Eddyville and the girls team captured a 1st place win. Coach Comfort commented on the girls team performance “We ran pretty well tonight, despite the fact that we had a pretty hard workout yesterday. The girls struggled a little in the early part of the race, but came on strong in the second half of the race. Steph has had a real strong season so far and I am impressed with what I am seeing from her. Brook broke the race open early and showed the type of runner she can be and was really not pushed much tonight. I think we are the verge of a big break through for the girls. Fourteen of our fifteen girls had season best times tonight. We probably need to be a little more aggressive in our running style, but I’m happy with the results thus far. Meaghan Toubekis and gabi Boxler are the keys to this teams success. We need them to continue to get closer to the other 5 runners. We had 7 runners under 19 minutes and had several on the verge of cracking the 18 minute barrier. The team has the chance to finish really strong in the next few weeks if they believe in themselves”
The boys team placed 2 people in the top 10. Senior Max Holle placed 3rd and Junior Alex Hyland finished 6th. “Max and Alex ran great races tonight. They have been working hard in practice and it is nice to see that paying off. Six of our 9 boys ran season best times tonight, which is encouraging. We are still making progress, we just need to take a little bigger steps as we begin to look toward conference and districts. We have a ways to go yet, but to improve is there. Our biggest challenge is learning to run hard when the body says it is tired and that is what we have been trying to work on in practice. We’re not there yet, but we will get there. It’s just a mental adjustment that needs to be embraced.”
The middle school team had a big day in their race. 9 of the top 10 were all Oskaloosa middle school runners. Skyler DeJong won his 3rd race of the season. “These kids have been working really hard and raced well tonight. The boys have been pretty strong all year and are getting better each week. The girls don’t have the same depth, but have made great strides and I have seen great improvement in all of them. They are a great bunch of kids and will help make Oskaloosa cross country better.”
The Indians will next compete at Knoxville next Tuesday September 28th.
