Looking ahead: SEISC cross-country

The Southeast Iowa Super Conference saw a plethora of success a season ago.

In 2023, the conference is set up to have another successful year as a boatload of young talent is set to return.

Last season, the Pekin girls and Danville-New London boys struck gold with conference titles and state meet appearances.

On the girls’ side, Pekin returns nearly all of its competitors from a year ago. Last year’s leader in freshman Chloe Glosser will likely lead the Panthers again in her junior campaign.

Glosser, Lauren Steigleder, Brooke Miller, Audrey Fariss, Brooke Sylvester, Lexi Swearingen and Renae Eubanks were all apart of the Panthers state tournament squad last season.

Of the seven Miller is the only graduate.

For the Danville-New London girls’ team. Alaina Gourley will be back. The now sophomore finished second in the SEISC meet and punched a ticket to the state meet a year ago.

Gourley will be joined by senior Kamryn Sherwood, who finished fifth in the conference a year ago.

The Bears had 12 on the roster a year ago and only one graduates, in Madelyn Buck.

For Van Buren County, Rylee Phillips was the lone top-10 finisher from a year ago. The Warriors had just three runners total last season and the trio will be back in Phillips, Ashley Fennel and Payten Poling.

Columbus will return a ton of competitors in 2023.

The Wildcats had 10 on the high school roster and lose just two in the forms of Sarah Campa and Averi Sipes.

Meanwhile, the Wildcats bring in five freshman.

Winfield-Mt. Union loses just two runners from their 2022 six competitor roster.

Emma Richardson and Bayla Thomson are both graduates.

Maggie Hutton, Olivia Martinez, Karilyn Titus and Afton Wilkerson are all still in school

On the boys’ side, Danville-New London loses some major talent.

AJ Bonnesen has been one of the top runners in the area for some time now. The graduate finished second in the SEISC meet a year ago and took fifth in the Class 2A state meet.

Along with Bonnesen, Rylan Martin will not be returning. Martin finished third in the SEISC meet and made the state meet as well.

Cuay Garrett also will be gone as he was a part of the Bear’s squad last season. He finished 15th in the SEISC meet.

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Carter Fesler, Jackson Shacklett and Talan Whaley will all return. Fesler and Shacklett were top 10 finishers in the SEISC meet a year ago.

Columbus will bring back nearly its entire roster as Oscar Alcala and Adan Martinez both graduate.

Headlining the Wildcats roster will be Damian Vergara who finished 11th in the SEISC meet in 2022.

Winfield-Mt. Union lost four to graduation in Jacob Haines, Jeff Maish, Preston Prior and Gabe White.

Returning will be now junior Kohlby Newsom, who was the Wolves highest placer in the SEISC last season. Newsom took 10th last year.

WACO will be without one runner from 2022. That is Mattias Luitjens.

Otherwise the Warriors bring back five other runners in Deacon Bird, Tanner Egli, Keiran Luitjens, Tristan Luitjens and Isaac Rich.

The Pekin boys bring back its entire eight person roster.

The Panthers will likely be led by now junior Brady McWhirter, who finished fifth in the SEISC meet last season and 16th in the state meet.

Cole Millikin, Ben Guise, Dylan Sobaski and Brayden Wages all competed as well.

Van Buren County loses just one to graduation. That is Grant Lilley.

Other than that, the Warriors look to be in good shape as SEISC ninth-place finisher Lincoln Bainbridge returns.

Much like Van Buren County, Highland drops just one from a year ago. For the Huskies that is Brendan Schnoebelen.

Besides Schnoebelen, Highland brings back four runners, not including the incoming freshmen.