L-S harriers open season against tough field at DCG

DALLAS CENTER — Lynnville-Sully’s first cross country meet of the season was canceled due to excessive heat.

The Hawks countered by joining a meet hosted by Dallas Center-Grimes on Tuesday.

They didn’t plan on facing such a tough field right out of the gates, but the L-S girls were seventh and the boys finished eighth at the Burnett Complex.

“This meet featured a mix of large 4A and 3A schools but also some smaller 1A and 2A schools,” L-S head cross country coach Darin Arkema said. “Both races had a number of teams ranked in their respective classes. We were looking forward to using the strong competition to help us start the season strong and race fast.”

Mandeesa Vos had the best L-S finish in her prep debut. Vos and Hendrick Lowry earned top-25 finishes in their respective 5K races.

The Hawk girls scored 193 points in seventh. That was eight points better than Class 1A No. 11 ACGC. They also had the same number of points as 2A No. 16 Pella Christian.

Class 4A No. 12 Indianola ran away with the team title with 36 points. Class 4A No. 2 Dallas Center-Grimes (77), 3A No. 20 Winterset (102), 2A No. 1 Van Meter (104) and Des Moines Christian (112) completed the top five.

Class 1A No. 11 ACGC (201), Waverly-Shell Rock (211), Carlisle (265) and Atlantic (279) completed the 11-team field.

“It was a tremendous effort by all six girls to do their part in contributing to the team success,” Arkema said.

Vos finished 23rd in the girls’ race. Her debut prep 5K time was clocked in 21 minutes, 50.9 seconds.

Olivia Norrish (22:47.3) was 34th, Peyton Sharp (22:57) finished 36th and Emma Parkinson (23:10.2) took 41st. Breah Lowry (25:50.3) and Abigail Ver Ploeg (26:46.9) made their prep debuts in 86th and 104th, respectively.

Class 4A No. 1 Piper Messerly of DCG won the girls’ race in 19:04.6. Class 4A No. 6 Jordyn Brown of Indianola was the runner-up in 19:09.8.

The boys’ race winner was 4A No. Graham Ibeling of DCG. He finished the race in 16:33.2. Des Moines Christian’s Josh Hagenberg was the runner-up in 16:48.9.

Class 4A No. 7 DCG won the boys’ title with 24 points. The rest of the top five featured Des Moines Christian (60), Southeast Polk (93), 3A No. 5 Carlisle (118) and 2A No. 10 Pella Christian (166).

Class 1A No. 3 ACGC (175) was sixth and 3A No. 8 Winterset (199) finished seven points in front of Lynnville-Sully (206) in seventh. Van Meter (220), Indianola (229), Atlantic (308) and Des Moines North (349) completed the 12-team field.

“My message to both teams ahead of the start to their races was seizing the opportunity and believing in themselves, their teammates and all the work they’ve been putting in so far this season and for many of them since June 1,” Arkema said.

Lowry led the L-S boys in 24th. He finished his first 5K of the season in 18:21.4.

Colton Alberts (18:42.9) was 33rd, Blake Wilmesmeier (18:51.6) finished 35th, Ethan Dunsbergen (19:48.9) took 67th and Keegan Schnell (20:00.2) ended up 75th.

Sam Terlouw (20:06.1) made his varsity debut in 77th and Evan Arkema (21:30.20) finished 112th.

“Hendrick took the role of senior leader and not only helped make sure everyone was ready to race, but then went out and crossed the finish line first for us,” Coach Arkema said. “It was a solid start to his senior season.”