Lady Vikes, Wolves fall just shy of WIC team titles
MISSOURI VALLEY (Oct. 12) -- The AHSTW girls and IKM-Manning boys both placed second by narrow margins and combined for five all-conference runners at Monday’s Western Iowa Conference Cross Country Meet.
This year’s WIC championships were held at the Logan-Mo. Valley Country Club, where Tri-Center’s Peyton Pogge defended her girls individual title and Treynor’s Cole Dooley won the boys race - both by significant margins.
Team titles were claimed by the Logan-Magnolia girls - a repeat winner - and the Missouri Valley boys.
The Panther girls barely edged out AHSTW, 56-58, winning some key individual battles in the one-five spots. Tri-Center placed third with a score of 75 and Underwood (98) was fourth.
The IKM-Manning boys finished just five points behind the Big Reds, 59-64, while three other teams also posted sub-100 scores: Underwood (68), Tri-Center (86) and Treynor (93).
AHSTW head coach Jenny Hamilton noted that the Lady Vikes’ narrow second-place finish was definitely painful.
“We set out to be conference champions and came up two points shy,” she said. Disappointments sting when you care about something. For some reason or another, we came out flat as a unit... We ran well, but we didn’t fight and scrape and claw for every point, and that’s what you have to do if you want to be a champion."
The Lady Vikes, who were running at full strength for the first time in about three weeks, were led by the senior duo of Julia Kock in fifth place (22:17) and Chloe Falkena in sixth (22:18). Senior Holly Hoepner also earned top-12 all-conference distinction by placing 10th in 23:26.
IKM-Manning had two girls finish the race Monday in sophomores Julianna Stribe (17th) and Morgan Hanson (25th).
Senior Quentin Dreyer paced the IKM-Manning boys with his second consecutive fourth-place finish in the WIC championships. Dreyer clocked a time of 18:41. Also for the Wolves, senior Connor Keller edged out sophomore Caden Keller by three-tenths of a second for the 12th-place medal, 19:28.3 to 19:28.6.
AHSTW’s lone boy in the race was freshman Caleb Hatch, who won a tough battle down the stretch to finish 34th.
Western Iowa Conf. Cross Country Meet • Oct. 12 • Logan-Mo. Valley CC
AHSTW Individual Girls Results -- 5th: Julia Kock, 22:17.6; 6th: Chloe Falkena, 22:18.7; 10th: Holly Hoepner, 23:26.7; 16th: Kailey Jones, 24:06.3; 23rd: Jade Draman, 24:53.4; 39th: Jordan Blotzer, 28:00.9; 44th: Abbie Willett, 30:12.0.
IKM-M Individual Girls Results -- 17th: Julianna Stribe, 24:09.9; 25th: Morgan Hanson, 25:25.8; DNF: Kaitlynn Spoelstra. (5-kilometer times; 52 runners)
IKM-M Individual Boys Results -- 4th: Quentin Dreyer, 18:41.6; 12th: Connor Keller, 19:28.3; 13th: Caden Keller, 19:28.6; 15th: Lane Sams, 20:00.0; 20th: Tanner Spoelstra, 20:07.7; 30th: Jayden Phipps, 20:56.4; 38th: Nathan Johnson, 21:44.2.
AHSTW Individual Boys Results -- 34th: Caleb Hatch, 21:31.2. (5-kilometer times; 53 runners)