Season bests galore

WILLIAMSBURG — The weather finally felt like fall, the ranked teams were a plenty and the times were fast at the Williamsburg Recreational Center Tuesday night.

At the peak of the fast times was Mount Vernon-Lisbon’s Grady Olberding, who ran 15:52 and set a new course record.

A total of 20 ranked teams were in the varsity boys and girls races Tuesday night.

The evolution of Williamsburg’s second home meet has taken it from a meet almost dropped from the schedule to one of the best Eastern Iowa has to offer.

“It’s good for our program and our community,” Williamsburg head coach Nick Nordheim said. “We have food trucks here, the course looks good and it has become one of the premier meets in the state.”

The competition brought many season bests from area runners.

WILLIAMSBURG

Channing Becker continued her strong freshman season with a fourth-place finish and a new personal best of 19:34 in the varsity girls’ race.

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Becker went out aggressive with the front pack and put herself in a good position.

The whole varsity lineup for the Raiders ran season bests, and the Raiders finished third as a team — one spot ahead of Class 3A No. 11 ADM Adel, a team the Raiders were aiming to beat.

Edie Axmear was 23rd in 20:28, and the three-to-five pack of Lilyona Abernathy, Leighton Maas and Ashlyn Hoffman finished between 21:05 and 21:13.

“Our girls were focused on ADM,” Nordheim said. “We needed to beat someone head-to-head to get that credit [for a higher ranking].”

The Raiders pack was closer to coming in under that 21 minute mark, which will be crucial for them to become a state qualifying team in Class 3A.

“You cannot sneak into state in 3A with a weak five runner,” Nordheim said.

On the boys’ side, the Raiders also performed their best this season.

Nile Busch finished 23rd in 17:26 and is finally hitting his stride, hitting the level at which he finished last season.

Colin Reed and Hayes Arwine both broke the 18-minute mark in personal best races.

“Three in the 17s was huge,” Nordheim said. “We just got to close that gap. If we are going to do something in 3A, we need five guys below 18.”

The meet was a great steppingstone for the Raiders as the postseason creeps nearer.

“This was a huge meet for us,” Nordheim said. “I’m proud of them and the hard work they’re putting in. It’s fun to see it pay off and mentally they’re buying into it.”

ENGLISH VALLEYS

Gage Heyne finished second in a loaded boys’ race in Williamsburg and ran a personal best of 16:03.

It’s been only the second time this season Heyne has had competition pushing him from start to finish, making it valuable experience for the senior.

“Meets like this are super important,” Heyne said. “It gives me a standard to see where I’m at and helps me build my strategy.”

Heyne tucked behind the lead pack for the first stretch of the race, going into the north wind before he made his move and pushed the pace.

Olberding passed Heyne in mile two and Heyne did his best to stay with the race winner the rest of the way.

“I had my eyes on him the rest of the race,” Heyne said. “Having someone out there to go chase makes it so much easier.”

Isaac Frazier and Evan Koehn both ran personal bests as well.

The girls’ team made a statement of their own, finishing sixth as a team and defeating Class 1A No. 3 Lynnville-Sully head-to-head.

“I thought everybody did well and ran hard,” English Valleys head coach Luke Caster said. “We were focused on what we needed to do, and I think we can still improve.”

Freshman Anna Luers ran a personal best and finished fifth.

Addison and Aubrey Achenbach were next for the Bears, running 21:09 and 21:15.

“We’ve been running a lot of hills lately, so it helps having a flatter course,” Caster added. “It was nice to see the hard work pay off.”

BELLE PLAINE

Luke Eichhorn broke 18 minutes in his second race of the season and finished 47th for Belle Plaine.

“It was a good confidence booster,” Eichhorn said.

Maddox Purk also ran a season best, in 19:23, as the Plainsmen placed 15th.

On the girls’ side, Elle Jacobi and Aurora Hemmingsen-Brinkman ran season bests.

IOWA VALLEY

Jeffrey Crawford may be a senior at Iowa Valley, but this is his first season of cross-country.

Crawford has improved throughout the season and broke the 18 minute barrier for the first time, running 17:53.

“It felt incredible,” Crawford said. “It’s been a great season so far. I’ve had a lot of challenging competitors and courses.”

With the improvements, Crawford can make a run at qualifying for state as an individual.

HLV-TC

“Every single runner that competed set a personal best tonight,” HLV-TC head coach Chase Sternhagen said. “It was a good meet.”

Peyton Roth was the highest boys’ finisher for HLV-TC, running 18:07. Drew Thys broke the 20 minute barrier in 19:56.

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Paisley Allee was the top girls’ finisher.

Varsity Girls

TEAM RESULTS

1. Mount Vernon-Lisbon 67, 2. Solon 71, 3. Williamsburg 139, 4. ADM Adel 152, 5. Pella 185, 6. English Valleys 189, 7. Tipton 212, 8. Clinton 212, 9. Pella Christian 213, 10. Lynnville-Sully 245, 11. Danville 301, 12. Bondurant-Farrar 327, 13. Vinton-Shellsburg 343, 14. West Delaware 345, 15. North Mahaska 376, 16. Eddyville-Blakesburg-Freemont 409, 17. Carlisle 418

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

Top 10: 1. Evelyn Moeller (MVL), 18:49.86; 2. Sydney Dee (Solon), 19:05.18; 3. Kiersten Swart (MVL), 19:19.5; 4. Channing Becker (Williamsburg), 19:34.47; 5. Anna Luers (English Valleys), 19:34.77; 6. Dana Mcculla (Pella), 19:39.05; 7. Livya Nelson (Solon), 19:40.25; 8. Aubrey Rivers (Clinton), 19:47.51; 9. Bailey Vos (PC), 19:48.34; 10. Alaina Gourley (Danville), 19:48.37

Williamsburg (139): 4. Channing Becker, 19:34.47; 23. Edie Axmear, 20:28.4; 34. Lillyona Abernathy, 21:05.9; 38. Leighton Maas, 21:11.5; 40. Ashlyn Hoffman, 21:13.5; 44. Makenna Capper, 21:19.6; 49. Maelyn Parson, 21:38.4

English Valleys (189): 5. Anna Luers, 19:34.77; 36. Addison Achenbach, 21:10.0; 41. Aubrey Achenbach, 21:15.1; 52. Kaylynn Caster, 21:53.1; 55. Kaylee Frazier, 21:56.7; 61. Kailor Lown, 22:07.0

HLV-TC: 114. Paisley Allee, 27:46.9; 119. Raelene Hawkins, 30:13.9

Belle Plaine: 115. Elle JACOBI, 27:47.0; 116. Aurora Hemmingsen-Brinkman, 28:16.2

Iowa Valley: 117. Kathryn Kilgard, 28:17.3; 120. Hannah Smolik, 31:28.0

Varsity Boys

TEAM RESULTS

1. Mount Vernon-Lisbon 58, 2. ADM Adel 83, 3. Bondurant-Farrar 11, 4. Carlisle 157, 5. Titon 163, 6. Danville 191, 7. Pella 215, 8. Williamsburg 220, 9. Pella Christian 221, 10. Lynnville-Sully 256. 11. Vinton-Shellsburg 254, 12. Solon 261, 13. West Delaware 319, 14. Clinton 389, 15. Belle Plaine 265, 16. Waterloo East 490, 17. HLV-TC 490, 18. Iowa Valley 510, 19. North Mahaska 516

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

Top 10: 1. Grady Olberding (MVL), 15:52.1; 2. Gage Heyne (English Valleys), 16:03.19; 3. Clay Bohlmann (Tipton), 16:08.82; 4. Alex Torres (V-S), 16:10.98; 5. Dawson Scheil (MVL), 16:11.19; 6. Jackson Shacklett (Danville), 16:24.42; 7. Barrett Jesina (STC), 16:33.37; 8. Kael Streeter (Carlisle), 16:39.77; 9. Torin Timmerman (ADM), 16:44.02; 10. Kamden Brown (Carlisle), 16:52.41

Williamsburg (220): 23. Nile Busch, 17:26.3; 29. Colin Reed, 17:36.4; 39. Hayes Arwine, 17:47.2; 65, Finn Brummel, 18:17.7; 76. Tyler McMullin, 18:42.1; 77. Charlie Koons, 18:43.7

Belle Plaine (465): 47. Luke Eichhorn, 17:57.2; 98. Maddox Purk, 19:23.6; 108. Devin Timm, 20:28.0; 121. Ian Davis, 22:40.5; 124. Caleb Argo, 23:03.1; 128. Sawyer Neuhaus, 24:22.7

HLV-TC (490): 53. Peyton Roth, 18:07.2; 101. Drew Thys, 19:56.9; 114. Wesley Davis, 21:02.3; 127. Lance Milton, 23:36.2; 129. Connor Rhinehart, 24:36.1

Iowa Valley (510): 42. Jeffrey Crawford, 17:53.3; 111. Ayden Hollister, 20:48.9; 130. Derek Bral, 24:40.4; 133. Ayden Wagner, 26:42.0; 136. Austin Trimble, 28:47.1; 139. Ethan Busch, 32:14.5

English Valleys: 2. Gage Heyne, 16:03.2; 68. Isaac Frazier, 18:29.4; 69. Evan Koehn, 18:36.8