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WACO’s Dykstra, Pekin’s Glosser win SEISC meet
WACO, Van Buren County take team titles
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
Jude Dykstra passed through a gate in the outfield of a baseball diamond and ran into the woods on the final lap of the SEISC boys meet. He was ushered through by a loud coalition of WACO students, who quickly sprinted up a nearby hill to the finish line after given Dykstra an earful of cheers.
Dykstra emerged into the chute alone and took first place in the conference boys meet at Hillcrest Academy. The same group of students greeted him at the finish line.
“It’s awesome,” Dykstra said with a grin after Tuesday’s race. “I didn’t know they were coming until this morning. Those guys are awesome.”
Dykstra finished the race at 16:47.7 and didn’t have to wait long for a few of his teammates to join him. Led by his performance, WACO won the SEISC team title with 73 points, 10 fewer than second place Louisa-Muscatine.
Locken Henderson finished seventh overall at 17:36.5. Garrett Landau was right behind him in ninth at 17:41.0. Gavin Slagel (18:30.0) and Hunter Wilson (19:11.2) rounded out the top five finishers for WACO.
“(It’s) super satisfying,” Dykstra said of his team’s title. “We’ve obviously trained all season and summer for this moment. This was our goal going into the season.”
After WACO and L-M, Columbus took third place in team scoring with 94 points. The Wildcats were led by 12th and 14th place finishes from Victor Tovar (18:09.1) and Ryan Villa (18:13.0).
Van Buren County finished fourth as a team. The Warriors were led by Lincoln Bainbridge’s third place finish at 17:10.6. Gavin Noll also earned a medal, finishing 13th at 18:09.2.
Pekin finished sixth with 143 points behind fifth place Mediapolis. The Panthers had a pair of medalists in Cole Millikin (5th place at 17:22.6) and Lane Fariss (10th place at 17:47.4).
West Burlington Notre Dame (152 points) took seventh. Central Lee (8th - 184 points), Danville (9th - 269 points), Lone Tree (10th - 315 points), Hillcrest (11th - 328 points), Winfield-Mt Union (12th - 375 points), Holy Trinity Catholic (13th - 376 points), New London (14th - 383 points), Wapello (15th - 401 points) and Highland (16th - 416 points) rounded out the boys team scoring.
In the girls race, Pekin’s Chloe Glosser navigated congestion at the start, which saw her in the back portion of the top 10 and had to overcome an early hiccup as she raced up the steep hill that greeted runners to the rest of the course.
Glosser battled with WACO’s Josie Dykstra and Louisa-Muscatine’s Fiona McGill throuought the first portion of the race. But the talented senior pulled away to finish first at 19:36.2.
“After I took that little chill pill in the beginning, then I just tried to get out hard and see if they would come with me,” Glosser said. “They did for a little bit, and then I was on my own. But I just had to push myself.”
Glosser made it a four-year sweep of first place honors at the SEISC meet. Her time this season was her second fastest at the conference meet and helped Pekin finish third place in team scoring with 84 points.
After yet another individual conference title, Glosser now turns her attention to the state qualifying competition Oct. 23. Glosser will compete on her home course at Pekin. She reached the Class 1A state meet last season and finished third overall.
“I definitely gained a lot more confidence in my abilities,” Glosser said. “Obviously, my time wasn’t too fast tonight or anything like that, but I trust in my training and I trust in God’s plan for me and that just gives me the strength and encouragement that I need going into this stressful part of the season and I’m excited to see how I’ll end up.”
Van Buren County took the conference team title with 59 points, six fewer than Louisa-Muscatine in second. Kayley Snowgren took ninth overall at 21:25.4 and Rylee Philips finished 13th at 22:00.5.
Though it didn’t qualify for team scoring, WACO had strong representation in the girls race. Macie Carter took 8th overall at 21:13.7. Josie Dykstra held onto second overall at 20:10.6.
Central Lee (98 points) finished fourth in team scoring behind Pekin, Louisa-Muscatine and VBC. Danville (5th place - 130 points), Columbus (6th - 136 points), Mediapolis (7th - 149 points) and Lone Tree (8th - 160 points) rounded out the team scores.
