The Hawkeye-10 conference cross country meet resulted in goals met by each of the varsity teams: a third-place finish. The meet, held on Thursday, Oct. 11, was originally set to be in Creston but was moved to Glenwood after a location change due to rain. This was also where the Trojans ran their first meet of the season on August 25 and according to head coach Dan Vargason, each member on the team improved their time from meet to meet. “Overall I thought it was a pretty solid run and we attacked the course the way we should’ve,” Vargason said.

Starting at 4 p.m., the varsity girls were first to run. Sophomore Taylor McCreedy, the consistent number one runner for the Trojans, finished second in 18:43.65 and shaved 56 seconds off her previous time at the course. Next for the Trojans and each earning an all-conference finish in the top 20 were Pluma Pross in 15th and Madison Botos in 20th. “I knew that we needed to be confident with ourselves,” Pross said. The team has been focusing on the concept of pack running, as Vargason explained that “our numbers can help carry each other through the race and bring times down, which it absolutely did.” Proving this strategy successful, Karsyn Rush trailed only three seconds behind Botos in 22nd and Ashley Wendt another three behind Rush in 24th, totaling the girls’ score to 83 points. “When one person would go we would all go with each other,” Pross said. Addie DeArment quickly followed two seconds behind Wendt in 26th and Katie Saluk finished 31st for the Trojan squad.

Also amounting to 83 points, the varsity boys were led by a 17:11.37 fourth place finish from Jalen Petersen: 44 seconds faster than his first debut at Glenwood this season. Evan Brummer finished just two seconds behind Petersen in sixth and Bradley Dennis came in 13th as the third and last Trojan to earn an all-conference finish for the varsity boys. “I told Jalen and Evan they needed to go out and run their races,” Vargason said, as each has their own racing methods. For Dennis, Vargason said they tried a new strategy and “slowed him down in the first mile and a half.” He challenged the rest of the team to stick together for as long as they could, and in 27th and 33rd, Cooper Jipsen and Zane Berg rounded out the five scoring runners. Aybren Moore, running his first varsity meet of the season, came sixth for the Trojans in 47th place. Meeting the team expectation of third place, Moore said, “Personally I didn’t think I was going to do as good as I did.” Still figuring out what strategy works for him, finishing the race with a strong kick was memorable for Moore. Ethan Williams finished next in 54th place as the end of the Trojan lineup.

Another third place finish came from the junior varsity girls, totaling 70 points. Abby Altman, finishing 11th in 23:03.57, came first for the Trojans and soon after was Heidi Williams in 12th. Others in the top 20 included Kelsie Siedlik (15th), Corri Pelzer (16th) and Erin Wendt (20th). Halsey Bailey finished 26th. “Our girls were right about where they should’ve been given the competition that we were going against,” Vargason said.

The junior varsity boys left with a fourth place, led by Nathan Brockman in eighth place with a time of 19:43.59. Cooper Jipsen finished 20th, Isaac Altman 26th, Alvin Nantz 37th and Jackson Mullin 43rd to total the boys score to 107 points. Sixth and seventh runners for the JV boys were Alex Sampson in 45th and Drew Engler in 47th. According to Vargason, senior Caine Page cut six minutes from his previous experience at Glenwood, a highlight for both coach and runner. The 2018 season was Page’s first time participating in cross country.

Junior varsity had their last meet of the season at Missouri Valley on Saturday, Oct. 13. Varsity teams will travel back to Glenwood for the state qualifying meet on Thursday, Oct. 18, beginning at 4 p.m. with the girls’ race, followed by the boys.