Clear Lake X-C opens season at Iowa Falls

Clear Lake’s boys and girls cross country teams opened the season with third place finishes at their season opener.  The Lions raced at Mayne’s Grove at Iowa Falls Thursday, Aug. 25.

“The girls were only eight points out of second place and should be able to use this success as a motivator going into our next meet,” said Coach Nick DiMarco.

Gretchen Jones, a junior, led the Lions with a ninth place finish in a time of 22:21.  Sophomore Katelyn Moore shaved three-minutes off of her last year’s time to finish 10th in 22:37.

DiMarco said Alena Gabrielson, another sophomore, is starting the season off in the best shape of her running career with a 16th place finish in 23:13.  Newcomers Riley Cooney, a freshman, and Mallory Leisure, a sophomore, were next for the Lions, finishing 26th in 24:40 and 27th in 24:48 respectively.  Junior Tali Tesar was right behind them, finishing 29th in 24:59.  Bailey Larsen, a sophomore, rounded out the seven scoring runners in 34th place in a time of 25:34.

The following runners also competed and did very well:  Rissa Barragy (37th, 26:31); Sharrell Lee, 54th, 28:37; Nikki Tesar, 59th, 29:11; Krystle Lu, 66th, 30:57; Elizabeth Brandt, 67th, 31:02; Aliyah Bennett, 73rd, 33:46; and Madison Gochanou, 76th, 35:14.

The Clear Lake boys also finished a close third in the team standings. Three 2015 State qualifying teams (Aplington, Clear Lake and Humboldt) went head to head in the opening race.  Humboldt was the eventual winner with 47 points.  Aplington took second with 48 points, and Clear Lake rounded out the top three with 50 points.

“This will be an excellent reminder to the runners that every place counts and that they can’t take anything for granted,” said Coach  DiMarco, adding that Clear Lake finished with six runners in the top 20.  “This is a remarkable accomplishment and demonstrates how talented of a group they are.”

Junior Sam Pedelty ran a very strategic race, finishing second in a time of 17:54.

“He was very patient and worked his way up the leader board as the race progressed,” said Coach DiMarco.

Sophomore Eric Faught was close behind, finishing fifth in 18:01.  Ike Branstad, a junior, finished a strong eighth in 18:26.  Junior Mahmoud Majdi  was 17th in 19:40.  Mahmoud is an exchange student from Morocco and this was his first 5K ever, noted Coach DiMarco.

Senior Grant Dieken ran lots of miles this summer which helped him secure an 18th place finish in 19:40.  Freshman Jacob Peterson was a great surprise this first meet, according to the coach, finishing 20th in 19:46.  Rounding out the scoring seven was Jacob Wessels, a senior, placing 29th in 20:46.

Clear Lake’s very large boys squad shows great promise.  Additional Clear Lake results included: Jacob Pedelty, 36th, 21:21; Josh Howard, 38th, 21:25; Dylan Schuchard, 41st, 21:50; Carter Olk, 48th, 22:30; Austin Young, 51st, 23:07; Joel Groeneweg, 52nd, 23:08; Karter Anderson, 56th, 23:18; Sam Badger, 58th, 23:28; Bryan Hillyer, 61st, 24:09; Theo Swanson, 63rd, 24:15; Jackson Hamlin, 69th, 24:36; Hunter Gerhardt, 70th, 24:44; Nick Currier, 71st, 24:45; David Lincicum, 74th, 25:01; Carson Meyer, 75th, 25:08; Hunter Nielson, 76th, 25:10; Tim Swanson, 79th, 25:38; Alex Starbeck, 81st, 25:55); Ashton Eckenrod, 89th, 28:12; Duke Olthoff, 94th, 29:22; David Guetzlaff, 95th, 29:27; and Cody Piper, 97th, 31:09.

Next up for the Lions is an invitational at Belmond-Klemme Tuesday, Sept. 6, at 4:30 p.m.