The Dike-New Hartford girls cross country team earned the team title at Thursday’s North Iowa Cedar League Championships in Oelwein. The Wolverines scored 92 points to edge Sumner-Fredericksburg by three points.
“Super proud of the ladies,” Head Coach Will Reingardt says. “They’ve been most definitely running as a pack all season. And we really wanted to just feed energy off of each other today on a great day to run against some great competition at the end of the season in a championship race. The ladies put it all together as a single unit, and all seven of them to be in top 30 of oh an NICL meet, it’s a lot to be proud of. A lot of honorable mentions, second team and first team all-conference honors. How they’ve glued together all season and they’ve worked towards making each other better and having fun along the way, and wanting to compete is kind of dangerous and fun. So that’s really led to a lot of our success and differences between years ago and here. Excited to be kind of back in the action again.”
Each scoring runner scored in the top 25, led by Olivia Petullo in eighth place. Seniors Josey Syhlman and Sedona Oldenburger describe what it means for the program to secure the team title.
“I think it’s really special to all of us,” Syhlman says. “We’ve had a good season so far and just especially with the pack running, being able to pick each other up and go with each other.”
“It’s just unreal, honestly, how we were able to get this far this season,” Oldenburger says. “It’s nowhere near what I thought we were going to do.”
Grundy Center’s Grace Storjohann placed fourth, helping lead the team to a fourth place finish.
“It was a little different today,” Storjohann says. “We’ve never been to this course before, so that was a little different. There’s a lot of tight turns here. We had a lot of rain these last couple days, so definitely slowed times down a little bit and I didn’t run my best but, I think our whole team is just focused on getting healthy for the following two weeks. I think today was just a good proof that we have a lot going on for our team and we’re gonna continue to accelerate.”
Aplington-Parkersburg was ninth, led by Charlee Endelman in 13th place with a PR of 21:08. South Hardin placed 12th, led by Mya Wilaby in 20th place.
In the boys race, Grundy Center senior Emerson Vokes went back-to-back, winning the title for the second straight season.
“I was really happy with it,” Vokes says. “Obviously the goal was to win. But during the race, I was just really grateful for where I am and how the journey has panned out so far. Obviously going back-to-back is pretty cool, but watching God take control throughout these four years is really special. During that race, I was just talking to God the whole time. I’m really grateful for the gift he’s given me and how I can use it for him. I’m just really thankful for it all. I would never imagine myself here, middle school or anything like that. So even if I’m not the best, I’m just grateful for where I am now, and if he took it away then I would still be grateful.”
Teammate Jayce Fryslie also medaled with a ninth place finish, helping the team to place third.
Aplington-Parkersburg placed fourth, led by Owen Price placing 15th in a PR of 17:47. Head Coach Jonna Junker says the team has come a long way with the notable addition of some dual-sport athletes.
“The district allowing us to dual-sport has helped allow us to gain some athletes,” Junker says. “Kudos to those guys. It’s got to be hard playing two sports in a season, especially with football. So we’ve got three dual-sporters on the varsity team. So those are a few of the ones that are banged up. To see them come in and step in and run hard for us every week just says a lot about who they are.”
Dike-New Hartford was fifth, led by Mckennen Lindaman in 19th place with a PR of 18:05. South Hardin was 11th, led by Jonah Vanderwilt in 33rd place.
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