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Washington Evening Journal
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Becker, Wilde lead Williamsburg girls at WaMaC meet
Pirkl leads boys with personal best
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CEDAR RAPIDS — Williamsburg’s Aubree Wilde picked a good time to have her breakthrough moment.
The sophomore beat her previous personal best by 49 seconds at the WaMaC cross-country meet Thursday at Seminole Valley Park, finishing with all-conference honors and a 14th place finish in 20:30.5.
“I’m so grateful that I got to run at all this season,” Wilde said. “My teammates pushed me to do my best. I thank God for all of it.”
Wilde missed the first part of the season with a knee injury, but has come on strong of late.
What makes it more impressive is that she ran her previous best of 21:19 less then a week ago. It was also the first time this season Wilde finished second for the 3A No. 14 ranked Raiders.
“I’m really proud of her,” teammate Channing Becker said. “She’s been working really hard in practices, and she’s only going to continue to get better.”
The girls’ field featured four ranked teams in 3A, including a team Williamsburg will see next week at its state qualifying meet, No. 17 Center Point-Urbana.
The Raiders finished third with 85 points, behind Solon and Mount Vernon-Lisbon.
Becker led the Raiders as she has all season, finishing fourth in a near best of 19:15.3. It was a photo finish with CPU’s Aaliyah Causey, who placed third.
Becker got out strong in the chase pack of three behind the leader and stayed put there the entire race.
“I thought I ran really good,” Becker said. “The practices the past week had me ready to run.”
Maddie Gorsh also finished with all-conference honors in 17th.
“Leighton (Maas) was huge for us too,” coach Nick Nordheim said. “She’s closing the gap to our top girls.”
The Williamsburg boys also had several noteworthy performances en route to their sixth-place team finish.
Freshman Marcus Pirkl ran a personal best to capture all-conference honors with a time of 17:14.3, good enough for 18th place.
“First off, I want to give all my glory to God,” Pirkl said. “I knew I had to go out fast and I felt I could hold it. I gave it everything I had.”
Pirkl’s freshman campaign is all the more impressive due to the fact he has been balancing football with running. Pirkl is a key contributor in junior varsity football games.
“My coaches have really supported me throughout this,” Pirkl said. “They’ve watched out for me, limited me in practices and they’ve really helped me balance it out.”
Five spots behind Pirkl was teammate Finn Brummel, who also ran a personal best, 17:33.1. Nile Busch ran 17:42 for a season best.
“I’m excited to see what we do at state qualifying,” Pirkl said.
The Raiders will host a 3A qualifier on Wednesday at the Williamsburg Recreation Center.
Mount Vernon swept both the team and individual titles in the meet and will be a force come the state meet in Fort Dodge.
GIRLS RESULTS
Team Scores
1. Mount Vernon-Lisbon 42, 2. Solon 82, 3. Williamsburg 85, 4. Center Point-Urbana 92, 5. Marion 127, 6. West Delaware 150, 7. Clear Creek Amana 159, 8. Benton Community 196, 9. Vinton-Shellsburg 207
Individual
All-Conference (Top 10 only)
1. Evelyn Moeller (MVL), 18:09.3; 2. Falyn Svalstad (Solon), 19:04.5; 3. Aaliyah Causey (CPU), 19:15.3; 4. Channing Becker (Williamsburg), 19:15.3; 5. Addison Dabroski (Marion), 19:38.4; 6. Ali Seidl (CCA), 19:39.0; 7. Kiersten Swart (MVL), 19:49.1; 8. Norah Peyton (West Delaware), 19:55.1; 9. Rose Pisarik (MVL), 19:56.9; 10. Emerson Dabroski (Marion), 20:11.0.
Williamsburg (85): 4. Channing Becker, 19:15.3; 14. Aubree Wilde, 20:30.5; 17. Maddie Gorsh, 20:48.4; 24. Edie Axmear, 21:22.2; 29. Leighton Maas, 21:27.6; 39. Ella Kleinmeyer, 22:45.2; 44. Ashlyn Hoffman, 23:07.7
BOYS RESULTS
Team Scores
1. Mount Vernon-Lisbon 34, 2. Grinnell 64, 3. Clear Creek Amana 89, 4. Vinton-Shellsburg 128, 5. Solon 141, 6. Williamsburg 152, 7. Benton Community 183, 8. West Delaware 227, 9. Marion 236, 10. Center Point-Urbana 244, 11. South Tama 306, 12. Independence 349.
Individual
All-Conference (Top 10 only)
1. Dawson Scheil (MVL), 15:49.1; 2. Carson Meskimen (CCA), 15:59.4; 3. Alex Torres (Vinton-S), 16:03.5; 4. Benjamin Brinkmann (MVL), 16:06.8; 5. Cadel Conner (Grinnell), 16:09.5; 6. Sawyer Feldman (MVL), 16:12.3; 7. Liam Crites (Grinnell), 16:26.9; 8. Barrett Jesina (South Tama), 16:27.4; 9. Aiden Wolfe (Grinnell), 16:29.3; 10. Isaac Sandquist (Grinnell), 16:38.8.
Williamsburg (152): 18. Marcus Pirkl, 17:14.3; 23. Finn Brummel, 17:33.1; 29. Nile Busch, 17:42.0; 39. Brevin Zirkel, 18:12.1; 43. Hayes Arwine, 18:26.2; 49. Colin Reed, 18:34.9; 64. Weston Drahos, 19:19.3
