Oskaloosa XC Competes At Pella Dutch Invitational

Oskaloosa Indians

by Keith Comfort

Pella, Iowa – The Oskaloosa Cross Country teams competed at the Pella Dutch Invitational held at Central College on Sept.1. Bailey Blythe led the girls team with a 12th place finish in a very competitive field. She covered the 4k course in a time of 16:02. Kelsey Roquet, Lesley Roquet, Melanie Harvey and Brey Hill rounded out the Osky scorers, with Julia Coniglio and Natalie Whitis also competing. “I thought the girls ran a very good race. We were conservative in the first mile, but really picked it up in the second half of the race. The was a quality field with several 4A schools including Dowling Catholic, Waukee, Cedar Falls, SE Polk, Marshalltown and 3A power Pella. I felt we competed really well and showed good improvement. This is a great course to run on. Bailey had a great race with a very strong finish. Our girls team is getting better each week. We finished 10th in the 13 team field, but this was a very strong field and I thought we performed really well. Our freshman girls are gaining experience and learning a little more about racing each week. I think we have the makings of a very good team.” In the JV race, the girls were 7th in the 9-team field. Freshman Alex Koenig led the way with a 33rd place finish in a time of 20:06, with Meghan Toubekis close behind in 35th place in 20:22. “The JV girls also ran well. Alex ran a good race, and seems to be understanding a little better each race what she needs to do. Meghan Toubekis also ran well and I was really happy with the performance of Lauren Gorski. Each of the JV kids is working hard each day and it showed today in the performances.”

The boys faced a similiar field and had a very strong team race finishing 8th in the 16-team field with 255 points. Skylar DeJong was the top finisher in 20th place covering the 5k distance in a time of 17:40. Spencer DeJong, Kamron VanHulzen, Logan Gross and Caleb Fisher were the other scoring runners on the team with Gerrit VanMaanen and Graeme Kuba rounding out the 7-member team. “I thought we had a very good performance as a team. Skylar, Spencer and Kamron had strong races, and Logan and Caleb ran really well. We are showing improvement each race. This is probably as well as we have run at this meet and I am very happy with the progress. I think we are capable of running much faster. We are pushing each other everyday and this is starting to pay off.” In the JV race there were only 3 Osky runners. Johannes Hartman led the way with a time of 21:28. Jared Buckallew and Devion Versendaal ran 23:08 and 26:08 respectively. “Johannes ran well today, with his best time of the year. Devion also ran his best time of the year and showed great improvement. These boys are working really hard and I was glad to see the improvements today.”

The Oskaloosa teams will be in action at Grinnell on Tuesday Sept 4, with the middle school getting their first competition of the year. Middle school races start at 4:30 with high school races at 5:00.

Pella Dutch Invite 1-September