Both Denver XC teams place top-3 at Jesup

JESUP — The 2A No. 1 Denver boys placed second as a team with 72 points, six behind Oelwein, and the 2A No. 10 Denver girls placed third with 97, eight behind Hudson, their best this season, at the Jesup Invitational on Tuesday, Oct. 1. The 1A No. 19 Wapsie Valley girls were sixth.

Freshman Jesse Gomez, No. 3 individually in 2A, finished fourth in 16:16.9 with a knee compression support, and Caden Knoblock was fifth in 16:23.3, a personal record for the junior.

Emerson Vokes of Grundy Center was first in 15:20.9, 2A No. 4 Connall Sauser of Oelwein had 15:47.3 for second, and 1A No. 3 Matthew Schaul of Maquoketa Valley-Delhi had 15:52.5 for third.

Denver head coach Valerie Pickett said the boys are working through “some nicks and dings.”

“Hopefully those will clear out within a couple weeks when we hit district time,” Pickett said.

The soft footing of the Jesup Golf and Country Club course was fortunate considering the dry weather, the coach said, and the cooler temperatures helped “a lot.”

“It was nice to have some air to breathe to run, and the kids took advantage of it.”

“The race felt a lot better for me,” the No. 17-ranked Knoblock said. “I’ve been starting to go down in mileage [times] the last couple of weeks, so I felt a lot better going through the mile. Definitely a lot better than my previous races, so I’m happy.”

For Denver, Myles Matthias clocked 19:41.3 for 10th overall and the third team score (10 points); he’s ranked No. 9 in 2A. Ethan Doty clocked 17:16.5 for 21st (17 points). Senior Sean Gomez clocked a 17:54.8 for 42nd (36 points) for a season best, rounding out Cyclone scoring.

The senior Gomez said he had a goal of a season best while working back from an injury incurred last spring.

“I had a goal to beat one of my teammates and set a season best. I was injured since March, so I’ve been trying to work my way coming back. My teammates are really pushing me, we’re working really hard together as a team,” Gomez said.

Retaining varsity placement in the top seven, Mitchell Doepke finished in 18:01.2 for the Cyclones and Ethan Pagel in 18:35.

“We’ve had a couple of bad races, people are hurting, but we’re doing really good, and it was a good race all around, beat some people, scored good for the team,” Gomez said.

Knoblock was positive about the team, yet realistic. “We lost by [six] points to Oelwein, we’ll do better in the future,” he said.

“[On] the boys side, it was good to get beat tonight,” Pickett said. “We needed to get beat by a good team, and now we’re gonna see how they respond to that. […] For them to experience that now in regular season is good, because what if that happens at districts? We still need to make it through, we still need to be able to get to state and perform there.”

FOR THE CYLONE GIRLS, Avery Trunkhill led by a nose, clocking 20:19.2 for 13th, followed by Lily Cooper in 20:19.3 for 14th (11, 12 points), each a 6:32 mile.

“[On] the girls side, we’re starting to get a little bit healthier, had some injuries early on that we’re coming back from,” Pickett said.

“My girls, I asked them to go out a bit harder than they normally do and they listened. Some of them were able to hold on and ran really good times as a result,” coach Pickett said.

“I ran with my friend Lily from our team, and we push each other, and it made the race go by quicker,” Trunkhill said. She has been working on “a strong mentality and really pushing myself in certain points in my race.

“The weather’s getting way nicer; that helps, too.”

Reeve Ristau crossed in 20:43.4 for 21st (19 points); Sophie Sanderson had a 21:14.9 for 27th (25 points); and Emily Mulert finished in 21:44 for 33rd (30 points), for 97 points.

Hailey Homan crossed in 21:56.8 for 38th and Adeline Decker in 22:05.5 for 44th for sixth and seventh on the team for the varsity contingent.

Wapsie Valley girls 6th, boys 17th

Wapsie Valley freshman Adalynn Kane crossed in 20:30.2 for 16th at Jesup and 14 points, leading her team to sixth with 181, 20 behind Grundy Center and 1 ahead of Maquoketa Valley-Delhi.

Jaylin May finished in 21:42.6 for 32nd (29 points), in the top third of the 126-runner field. Maya Barnes clocked a 22:07.3 for 46th (40 points). Adelynn Wierck had 22:25.5 for 55th (47). Brinley Boheme had 22:40.8 for 60th (51).

Ava Meyer had 23:03.4 for 68th and Miriam Rulapaugh had 24:02.5 for 97th and varsity placements.

FOR THE WARRIOR BOYS, Aidan Brady placed seventh in 16:30.1 to lead the Wapsie Valley boys to 17th (432 points) ahead of three North Iowa Cedar League teams.

“Definitely could have been a little better with it being a faster course, but I’m not upset about it,” said Brady, ranked No. 8 in 1A.

“It was a good race to be in. I wish I could have gotten Matthew Schaul because he’s one of the top-ranked guys in 1A. But that’s how it goes sometimes.”

Marshall Weepie was second to score for the Warriors in 19:40.4, a new personal record.

“That was my best by about 20 seconds,” Weepie said.

“I wanted to do well at this race because it’s a great course, it’s finally cold out, it’s getting late in the season. I passed people; I decided it was going to be a good race today. We had a lot of support, and it ended up good,” Weepie said.

Finn Schaefer was 115th in 20:20.2 (105 points). Oliver Tiedt was 131st in 21:22.4 (117 points). Cameron Szurley had a 21:24.1 for 133rd (119).

Jace Heasley-Eike was 140th in 22:07.4 for the Warriors’ sixth, varsity placement.

Gidal Kaiser contributed to this story.