CL boys continue to win; girls finish in 12th place

The Algona Cross Country meet was postponed from Monday, Sept 25, to Tuesday, Sept. 26.  The wait was worth it, as in near perfect conditions 30 of the 45 Clear Lake runners ran their fastest times of the year.

The varsity boys continued their streak of top tier finishes by placing first in a strong 17-team field.  Clear Lake’s 54 points was 11 better than 13th ranked Humboldt’s 65 points, and 15th ranked Charles City’s 67 points.  Sam Pedelty finished second to defending state champion Riley Bauer, from North Union, in a time of 16:42.

“Sam and the rest of the varsity boys ran a great race with only two days of rest after competing at the Griak University of Minnesota Meet,” said Clear Lake Coach Nick DiMarco.

Eric Faught ran another fine race, finishing sixth in a time of 17:01.  Ike Branstad fought off a couple of Humboldt and Charles City runners to finish 16th in 17:40 helping the team to win the meet.  Justin Wright finished right behind Ike in 17th place in a time of 17:43. Karter Anderson finished 28th in 18:12.

“Karter is improving in leaps and bounds and this is the first time he was a part of the scoring five,” noted Coach DiMarco.

Dylan Schuchuard finished 35th in a time of 18:23. Lewis Callaway ran his best race of the year, finishing 44th in a time of 18:34.

“Our strength is in our depth, and this race proved it more than ever,” added the coach.

Varsity girls

The Lion varsity girls finished 12th out of 17 teams with a score of 272.

“At this point of the season, the girls are really trying to fight through some health and injury issues in order to be in a good spot for the conference meet,” explained Coach DiMarco.

  Gretchen Jones ran a controlled race and  finished 18th for the Lions in a time of 21:23.  Not far begin Jones was Alena Gabrielson, placing 29th in a time of 21:54. Next for the Lions was Bailey Larsen, who placed 52nd in a time of 23:11.  Riley Cooney followed in 74th place in a time of 24:19.

“Riley’s times are really starting to drop, which is exactly what we will need to be competitive at the conference meet,” said Coach DiMarco.

Tali Tesar placed 107th in a time of 26:54. Jessica Theobald placed 109th in a time of 27:14.  Delany Markwart placed 110th in a time of 27:17.

Junior Varsity 

Clear Lake’s junior varsity boys were paced to a fourth place finish by Ben Stroup running a 19:16.67.  Noan Colby was 12th in 19:34.58, followed by Jacob Pedelty (30th, 20:20.48) and Carter Backhaus (31st, 20:22.97).  Joel Groenweg was next (34th, 20:30.10), along with Carter Olk (20:34.99) and Josh Howard (38th, 20:35.48.

Other Clear Lake runners included: Theo Swanson (57th, 2:09.20; Austin Young (61st, 21:14.09), Noah Petersen (66th, 21:31.90), Connor Morey (91st, 22:05.79), Carson Meyer (101st, 22:26.12), Ty Piper (109th, 22:35.44), David Guetzlaff (122nd,, 23:03.04), Alex Storbeck (138th, 23:26.56), Nick Currier (141st, 23:33.51), Cody Piper (164th, 26:08.38), Braden Byrnes (169th, 26:22.07).

Charles City captured the boys JV title with 47 points.  Forest City was runner up with 92 and Humboldt edged Clear Lake, 105 to 106.

Kara Reineke was the top finisher for the Clear Lake JV girls.  She was 33rd in a time of 26:21.91.  Taylor Krull crossed the finish line in 28:15.18, good for 63rd place. She was closely followed by Sharrell Lee, 65th in 28:28.55, and Jordyn Barragy, 67th in 28:43.29.  Gretchen Guetzlaff came in 91st in a time of 31:44.08.