CL X-C teams perform well at Newman meet

(Above) The Clear Lake girls cross country team starts the race at the Newman Catholic meet on Tuesday, Sept. 3.  Pictured for GHV is Abbie Christians. Christians ended up placing second in the meet with a time of  20:37.37.     

By Michelle Watson

Clear Lake Lions cross country team raced at the Newman Catholic home meet on Tuesday, Sept. 3.

“All teams performed very well,” said Coach Nick DiMarco.  “These kids are really coming together as a team.  I see a lot of support and encouragement on the course.  The upperclassmen continue to be great mentors to our young runners.”

The varsity boys placed third with 105 points as a team.  The team may lack experience, but the young runners proved themselves by clocking some good times and helping the team to the top tier.

Justin Wright, a junior, led the way for the Lions.  Wright raced to a fifth place finish with a time of 18:01.81.  Senior Jacob Pedelty led a pack of freshmen to 23rd, 24th, 26th and 27th places.  Pedelty finished with a time of 19:03.59.  He was followed by Jaden Wright, 19:09.12; Christopher Molander, 19:13.84; and Jack Crane, 19:17.01.  Rounding out the team were two more freshmen, Andrew Mixdorf, 36th with a time of 19:40.71 and Leo Tolentino, 38th, 19:44.08.

West Fork won the 14-team title with 92 points.  St. Ansgar was second with 97 points.  Newman Catholic followed Clear Lake with 109 points.

CL Girls

The Clear Lake girls squad is young, too, but they are also stepping up to the challenge.

The team was led by freshman Jadyn Heesch, who placed 11th overall with a time of 23:02.28.  Two sophomores finished in 27th and 37th place for the Lions.  Kaylee McCarl ran the race in 24:12.41 and Emily Roberts in 25:05.93.  Ella Nielsen, another freshman, was next to cross the line for Clear Lake.  She clocked a 26:24.84 to finish in 47th place.  Juniors Jessica Theobald and Yulia Kravchuk finished in 63rd and 66th place respectively.  Theobald clocked a 28:11.91 and Kravchuk a 28:37.83.

Clear Lake placed eighth in the 11-team standings with 168 points.  Newman Catholic won the meet with 61 points.  Iowa Falls-Alden was second with 85 points and Osage was third with 104 points.

Junior Varsity

The junior varsity boys performed very well, placing first in the JV race with 34 points.  New Hampton was second with 47 points followed by Osage with 73 points in the five-team competition.

Roman Gabrielson, Vladimir Starrett and Elijah Mock stuck together to run the race and it payed off with second, third and fourth place finishes.  Gabrielson’s time was 20:42.94 to lead the pack, followed by Starrett in 20:56.16 and Mock in 20:57.51.

Jordan Bergman placed 11th (22:08.16), Noah Petersen (21st, 22:56.87), Easton Goeman (22nd, 23:02.81), Matt Moore (24th, 23:07.55), Logan Ruff (49th, 24:59.74), JJ Bauer (57th, 25:47.40), Mitchel Conway (62nd, 26:50.39), Cabot Neuberger (70th, 27:45.97).

JV Girls

The junior varsity girls didn’t have enough runners to compete for a team score, but the girls that did compete raced well.

Aimee Groeneweg led the Lions runners with a 14th place finish in 31:45.69.  Gretchen Guetzlaff and Chloe Williamson were 21st and 22nd respectively.  Guetzlaff ran the race in 35:45.03 and Williamson finished in 35:58.54.  Hana Hasheash wasn’t far behind with a 27th place finish in 40:17.57.