Area runners compete at State Cross Country Meet

(Above left) GHV’s Reece Smith placed second in the State Meet with a time of 16:02.2  This was the sophomore’s second trip to the State Meet. (Above right) Clear Lake’s Eric Faught was the highest finisher for the Lion’s team.  He placed 14th with a time of 16:59.2.  -Photos courtesy of Don and Becky Pedelty

GHV boys place 5th; Clear Lake boys take 8th

Garner-Hayfield-Ventura and Clear Lake boys cross country teams finished among the top in Class 2A at the Iowa Cross Country State Championship held Saturday, Oct. 29, at Lakeside Gold Course in Fort Dodge.

GHV, led by Reece Smith’s second place finish, was fifth overall in the team race with 163 points.  Clear Lake was eighth in the class, paced by Eric Faught’s 10th place finish.  The Lions had 186 points.

Mid-Prairie, Wellman captured the 2A team title with 98 points.  Unity Christian was runner-up with 115, followed by Wester Christian with 130.  George-Little Rock was fourth with 148.  GHV in fifth place edged South Hamilton, Jewel by one point.  South Winneshiek, Calmar was seventh with 180. East Marshall and Aplington-Parkersburg finished behind Clear Lake with 191 and 194 points.

Faught leads CL boys; Moore runs for CL girls

“The runners are already excited for next year,” said Clear Lake Coach Nick DiMarco, whose entire team qualified for State for the second straight year.  Prior to 2015, the Lions had not sent a team to the State cross country meet since 1988.  The team has to be favored to return next year, as they lose just one senior from the 2016 State qualifying and conference runner-up squad.

At State, sophomore Eric Faught passed many runners in the last half-mile to finish 14th in 16:59.2  Last season he was 30th overall in 17:26.

“Eric ran a very smart race,” said DiMarco. “This is the first time a runner has made the podium for many years.”

Next for the Lions was junior Sam Pedelty, running 17:32.3 to place 39th.  His time was :15 seconds faster this year than last year when he placed 49th.  Ike Branstad, also a junior, was 67th in 17:58.7.

The teams’ lone senior, Grant Dieken, wrapped up his high school cross country career by placing 83rd in 18:12.7.

“Grant improved :50 seconds over last year’s state meet,” noted DiMarco.  Dieken was 115th last year.  “Grant’s leadership and enthusiasm will be hard to replace next year.”

Rounding out the scoring for the Lions was freshman Jacob Petersen, who was 92nd in 18:21.2.

Also competing for Clear Lake was sophomore Noan Colby, 117th in 18:53.1, and junior Dylan Schuchard, 126th in 19:26.4.

Team scores were compiled using only placements of runners competing with their entire team.  Individual qualifiers were omitted from the scoring.  Using that method, Faught was 10th, Pedelty 23rd, Branstad 41st, Dieken 53rd, and Peterson 59th for Clear Lake’s 186 points.

Katelyn Moore represented the Clear Lake girls.  The sophomore finished 115th in 23:09.4.

“Katelyn says that she will use her experience at State as a motivator for next season.  It is her hope that she can return to the state meet with her teammates,” said Coach DiMarco.  “I am proud of the efforts that the entire team has put forth this year.”

Smith leads the way for GHV with 2nd place finish

The GHV team did not quite finish where they wanted to, as the repeat Class 2A State Champions, but they still had a very successful season, capturing many team titles, and placing numerous runners consistently in the top 10.

“I was very proud of the team this year, we had a great season,” said Coach Jeff Short.  “It did not finish like we would have liked, but it still was a great season.  I tell the runners that a season is not determined in one race, nor is a runner legacy.”

Hoping to build a runner legacy at GHV is sophomore Reese Smith.  Smith battled the entire race with Ogden’s Andrew Stumbo, a senior who captured the title in 15:53.6.  Smith wasn’t far behind in 16:02.2.  Last year at the State meet, Smith finished in fifth place with a time of 16:24.6.

Also placing in the top 10 was senior Logan Dalbeck.  Dalbeck placed sixth with a time of 16:39.4.  Last year at the State meet Dalbeck was 13th with a time of 16:48.

Ray Cataldo and Austin Siegrist finished in 33rd and 38th place respectively.  Cataldo, a junior, ran the race in 17:49.9, while Siegrist’s time was 17:56.5.  Both Cataldo and Siegrist also competed on the 2015 State champion

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ship squad.  Cataldo finished in 28th place and Siegrist, a senior this year, was 84th.

Also competing for GHV was senior Mason Wirts, who was 84th in 19:05.9, Nathan Larson, a sophomore, was 96th in 19:50.4 and Derek Brown, a senior, was 104th in 20:36.0.

“I thought it was great to have a number of students and fans at the State Meet supporting the program.  Many were underclassmen, which we will be needing to fill the holes left by this year’s seniors,” said Short.

The team will miss the contributions of seniors Dalbeck, Siegrist, Wirtz and Brown, but a solid core of returning letter winners will hopefully lead a new squad to make a reappearance in the 2016 State Cross Country Meet.

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