L-S boys end historic season at state meet

FORT DODGE — Lynnville-Sully sophomore Colton Alberts is on track to become the school’s first-ever four time state cross country qualifier.

And his performance on Saturday at the Iowa High School State Cross Country Championships should give him a lot of confidence heading into next season.

Alberts led the state-ranked Hawks at Lakeside Golf Course inside Kennedy Park. The 13th-ranked Lynnville-Sully boys cross country team did not quite meet its team expectation though.

“What an incredible day for the Lynnville-Sully cross country programs, its athletes, coaches, parents, fans, school and community,” Lynnville-Sully head cross country coach Darin Arkema said. “It truly was a unique experience because only a few of us were around or part of the last time both teams competed in the state meet together.

“As great of a day as it was, there was some disappointment. We wanted to have our sights set for something bigger, but I also want them to know that no one can take away that they were state qualifiers.”

Alberts finished 109th in the 1A boys’ state race as a freshman. He moved all the way up to 28th on Saturday. His time was clocked in 17 minutes, 3.1 seconds.

No other Hawk finished inside the top 50, but the difference between 27th and 93rd was around 1 minute.

Hendrick Lowry was the next best finisher for L-S in 66th. His time was 17:37.4. The Hawks’ only senior in the varsity lineup was 69th in last year’s state meet.

“I’m happy with it,” Lowry said. “I always would like to be faster and done better, but it was a good way to end it.”

The other three counting scorers were Blake Wilmesmeier (17:55) in 92nd, Ethan Dunsbergen (19:15.5) in 139th and Keegan Schnell (19:28.5) in 144th.

Madden Gunsaulus (19:30.2) was closely behind Schnell in 145th and Evan Arkema (19:53.1) finished 150th as non-scoring runners.

The 15th and final medal winner completed the boys’ 5K race in 16:35.9.

“It’s good, but really packed,” Wilmesmeier said. “I was expecting packed, but that was really packed. There’s a quick turn at the beginning so if you get stuck you’re kind of doomed.

“I need to work on my second mile. It’s always the toughest for me.”

Top-ranked Lake Mills won the 1A team championship with 88 points. Fifth-ranked Ankeny Christian Academy was the runner-up with 132 and the rest of the top five featured No. 2 Woodbine (144), No. 3 Ogden (152) and No. 4 Riverside (171).

Sixth-ranked Earlham (179) finished sixth, No. 8 Danville (197) was seventh and No. 7 Sioux Central (211) took eighth. No. 10 Fort Dodge St. Edmond (221) and No. 14 ACGC (224) completed the top 10.

Lynnville-Sully (302) came in ranked 13th and finished 14th in the 16-team field.

Alberts remembers last year’s cold weather at the state meet. Saturday ended up being maybe the coldest day of the season but was still much better than the 2023 state meet.

“It was great to have the whole team here to experience it with us,” Alberts said. “The weather was a lot better than last year. The support was a lot better, too.”

Top-ranked Gavin Grunhovd of North Iowa won the boys’ 1A race in 15:57.5. He was 12th last season.

Seventh-ranked Gunner Wagner of Woodbine was the runner-up in 16:05.2.

“It was kind of crazy, but it was fun,” Dunsbergen said. “I didn’t realize how difficult that last hill would be. My performance was all right.”

Lowry said the biggest difference in his two years competing at the state meet was the week of practice leading up to the season-ending event.

“It felt like just another week really,” Lowry said. “They were around last year, but this year they had to practice with a purpose, too. It was really cool.”

Lynnville-Sully’s boys qualified for state as a team for the first time in 29 years. The highest team finish for the Hawks was 13th in both 1994 and 1995.

“There are things I will continue to evaluate to improve on how we prepare athletes for the state meet,” Coach Arkema said. “We will continue to tweak, but right now I want to celebrate what we did accomplish this year, and I’m so proud of our athletes.”

Notes: Coach Arkema was on the last L-S boys team which reached the state meet. He got the chance to coach his two sons on this year’s state qualifying team. “There were a lot of special moments this last week,” Coach Arkema said. “I was a runner the last time the team made it and now my son is on the team that made it, I get to coach two sons and my wife is alongside with me. I also have kids I’m coaching whose parents were in my class and ran with me or were here cheering for us. I do take a lot of pride in that.”