Columbus boys, Pekin girls win Mike Jay Invitational

COLUMBUS JUNCTION — Faith Neely of Van Buren County knows something not many other cross-country runners know. She knows what ferritin is and how important it can be.

Ferritin is a blood protein that contains iron. Through trial and error and doctors visits, Neely learned her ferritin levels were not what they should be.

“They were extremely low. I’m slowly building myself back up to where I should be by eating food with more iron and taking supplements,” Neely said.

Neely finished second at the Mike Jay invitational Tuesday behind Lauren Steigleder and ahead of Lauren Dersheid, both of Pekin. Neely improved by 33 seconds from Thursday’s conference race.

“It’s quite a battle between those two,” Neely said. Pekin’s Zack Wise won the boys race with Freddy Vergara in second and Gavin Grove of Cardinal in third.

“It’s a mental game and I want to be prepared for state qualifying,” said Wise, who ran a better time on a course with more hills than Thursday’s conference meet. “It sucked, but I have to get prepared to make state.”

Grove has been dealing with a sore knee but as a senior he has the state meet in his plans after being one place short of qualifying last year. “I had a rough season so I liked running on this course. It’s one of my favorites. I love the hills. I didn’t think I’d be able to run at the beginning of the year so this feels great.”

Isaac Acosta’s fourth place finish helped Columbus win the boys race and Pekin won the girls race with a perfect score.

Neely’s Van Buren County teammate, freshman Payton Poling, was fourth. The two make up the girls team for the Warriors. Neely, a senior, has had just one teammate, and a different one in each of her seasons. Poling will have a freshman next season as her lone teammate.

Neely has run at the state meet all three years and finished 16th in 1A as a freshman and was ranked as high as eighth as a sophomore. Yet this season started badly when she nearly fainted, catching herself on a tree in an early meet.

“She has a great vibe, a great work ethic and she’s always so positive even when she’s down, VBC coach Lucinda Dehart said. ”It was so hard for her because she didn’t want to run and collapse but she always want to run and get better.“

“She is an overcomer,” Dehart. “The support of teammates has really helped and we’re always praying. We’ve just been blessed to have her.”

Neely runs with the boys in practice and it’s a “little bit of a competition sometimes.” But that makes her faster. Whether its fast enough to make state a fourth time, she will find out Oct. 21.

BOYS TEAM SCORES

1. Columbus 29, 2. Winfield-Mount Union 57, 3. Pekin 66, 4. Louisa-Muscatine 79, 5. Holy Trinity 94

Columbus — 2. Freddy Vergara 17:34.3, 4. Isaac Acosta 18:23.3, 7. Mason Hills-Carrier 19:08.0, 9. Damian Vergara 19:19.9, 11. Tim Hills-Carrier 19:27.0

Pekin — 1. Zack Wise 17:20.7, 10. Ben Guise 19:21.1, 15. Jaedon Wolver 20:10.7, 27. Robert Brown 21:37.4, 30. Gavyn Brown 22:10.2

Cardinal — 3. Gavin Grove 18:06.3, 17. Karson Kirkpatrick 20:17.8, 40. Kyran Spees 24:52.4

Winfield-Mount Union — 5. Gabriel Hemsworth 18:28.2, 6. Kohlby Newsom 18:58.3, 13. Lane Scorpil 20:01.8, 23. Ty Scorpil 21:13.0, 25. Jeff Maish 21:22.7

Van Buren County — 16. Chase Clark 20:14.2, 26. Isaiah Meek 21:24.9, 29. Grant Lilley 22:03.2, 37. Zane Smith 23:35.5

WACO — 20. Isaac Rich 21:02.0, 35. Wyatt Dennis 22:53.8, 36. Jonah Egli 23:06.0, 43. Deacon Bird 29:03.8

Highland — 21. Carlos Valenzuela 21:08.7, 38. Brendan Schnoebelen 23:58.2, 39. Jackson Schneider 24:26.6, 41. Andrew Lana 27:00.7

GIRLS TEAM SCORES

1. Pekin 15, 2. Cardinal 48, 3. Columbus 57

Pekin — 1. Lauren Steigleder 21:14.8, 3. Lauren Derscheid 21:41.1 5. Sarah Eubanks 22:40.1, 6. Zoey Johnson 22:55.2, 7. Audrey Fariss 23:13.2

Cardinal — 8. Aracelili Tapetillo 23:46.4, 13. Shakayla Uheling-Techel 25:19.7, 15. Lauren Sloan 25:28.7, 17. Caitlyn Reber 26:00.2, 24. Ashlyn Patrick 26:49.1

Columbus — 11. Ariana Vergara 24:38.8, 14. Kimberly Gonzalez 25:23.8, 20. Averi Sipes 26:08.1, 29. Frannie Sosa 28:00.4, 33. Alexa Alcala 31:40.4

Van Buren County — 2. Faith Neeley 21:20.2, 4. Payten Poling 22:16.1

WACO — 18. Justine Lynn 26:02.4, 22. McKenzie Vradenburg 26:27.4, 23. Hannah Dennis 26:34.7 26. Avery Waterhouse 27:11.2,

Highland — 21. Katelyn Waters 26:16.0

Winfield-Mount Union — 32. Maggie Hutton 30:41.2, 34. Olivia Martinez 31:46.6