Vos leads L-S girls to eighth at state meet

FORT DODGE — The Lynnville-Sully girls cross country team qualified for the state meet for the first time since 2013.

But head coach Darin Arkema didn’t want the Hawks to come to Lakeside Golf Course inside Kennedy Park simply happy they were one of the best 16 teams in Class 1A.

“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,” Arkema said. “I do think the girls believed in their hearts that a higher finish was possible.”

Arkema knew the competition would be difficult and a finish of anywhere from third to 10th would be possible and realistic.

Freshman Mandeesa Vos led the way for L-S with a top-30 finish, but the 1A No. 5 Hawks placed eighth in the team standings.

Lynnville-Sully scored 203 points and trailed sixth-ranked and seventh-place Alta-Aurelia (192) by 11.

“As great of a day as it was, there was some disappointment,” Arkema said. “The girls field was loaded. The winner broke the 1A all-time record, and you had to run a 19:40 to be in a top 15.

“I thought maybe we could finish third or we could get 10th. There were some tough teams out there.”

Senior Olivia Norrish competed in her final cross country race as a member of the Hawks.

And that fact certainly made the three-time state qualifier a bit more emotional than normal.

“It’s the last time I will put this jersey on with this team,” Norrish said. “This team has been a family for the past six years. I’ve been running with the Arkemas that entire time, and they know how to make it a family and a team. It’s sad that it’s over.”

Norrish finished 81st in her final race. Her time was clocked in 21 minutes, 33 seconds. She placed 79th last year and 57th as a sophomore.

Vos led the Hawks in 27th place. She posted a time of 20:07.6 but needed a 19:40.4 to earn one of the 15 state medals.

Vos likes to get out fast in her races but admitted to getting out too fast in her first state meet.

“It was really fun. I didn’t PR. I went out too fast for the first mile,” Vos said. “I think I need to run my race. I was listening to everyone around and try to pass a bunch of people. If I had run my own race, I would have done better. I think I did OK though. I was happy with it.”

Sophomore Emma Parkinson (21:07.4) finished 65th, sophomore Peyton Sharp (21:58.4) was 96th and freshman Breah Lowry (22:24.2) ended up 109th as the final counting scorers.

Sharp was surprised at the number of people in the race and the size of the crowd.

“It was crazy. I didn’t expect that many people,” Sharp said. “You don’t want to get stuck, but that’s impossible really. There are runners everywhere. And the crowd is a hallway of people the entire way.”

Freshman Abigail Ver Ploeg (24:59.1) was the Hawks’ non-scoring runner in 143rd.

Ver Ploeg enjoyed her first state experience and was glad she had the whole team with her, too.

“I have never been to state before, but I feel like coming as a team is better,” Ver Ploeg said. “I don’t know if I’d like it as much by myself. I wouldn’t want to do it alone.

“The course is pretty easy. The hills aren’t as bad as what we’re used to running. It was colder than I thought it was going to be.”

The conditions were colder than any other day of the season but much warmer than last year’s state meet. It didn’t seem to affect the runners much though.

Top-ranked Lili Denton of Council Bluffs St. Albert won the 1A girls’ race in 17:59.3.

Second-ranked Nora Peterson of Alta-Aurelia was the runner-up in 18:28.5. No. 3 Chloe Glosser of Pekin finished third in 18:31.9. Peterson was fourth last year, while Glosser finished 17th.

Class 1A No. 1 Earlham won the 1A state championship with 91 points. Second-ranked Madrid was the runner-up with 109.

The Cardinals trailed Madrid by 29 points after the first three runners, but they rallied by outscoring the final two scoring runners by 47 points.

Fourth-ranked Treynor (172), No. 9 South Winneshiek (173) and No. 3 English Valleys (175) were separated by three points in third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

No. 7 Sioux Central (181) finished sixth, sixth-ranked Alta-Aurelia (192) was seventh, No. 8 Martensdale-St. Marys (223) took 10th and 16th-ranked Collins-Maxwell (310) placed 15th in the 16-team field.

“What a fun season and this group etched their names into the history books of Lynnville-Sully,” Arkema said. “I don’t believe at all we didn’t finish higher in the standings because of lack of effort on the athletes’ part to try and run their best races.

“When we brought the phrase ‘level up’ to the athletes, one thing that was identified for our teams to level up was for the teams to make it to state. They did that. They accomplished so much more along the way, too.”

With only Norrish graduating from the girls’ team, the future appears to be bright for the Hawks.

Vos and Sharp have already identified what they want to do to get better before next fall. Vos will do more hill training. She wants a better kick at the end of her races.

“I’m really proud of all of us. We did really well and hit a lot of our goals,” Sharp said. “I definitely want to run more this summer, work hard with my teammates and work on my second mile.”

Notes: Arkema hopes this year’s success breads more success in the future. The Hawks were ranked most of the season with just six total runners. “We have a nice nucleus coming back,” Arkema said. “We gained some kids who are running now who were not junior high cross country runners. I don’t go into the halls and tell kids what to do. If you are not happy with what you’re doing, I got plenty of uniforms for you. We can coach you up.”