Warriors keep improving times
With a 15th-place finish, Coral Rork medaled at Central’s home meet on Sept. 14. (Photos by Bev Hamann)
Henry Reimer placed 17th and Michael White 18th in the boys race in Elkader.
Audrey Palas crossed the finish line 47th at the Central Invitational.
Gavin Holst turned in a seventh-place effort—the top finish for the Central boys.
By Willis Patenaude, Times-Register
The lone home meet of the year for Central’s cross country team showed what great weather and six weeks of training can accomplish, as both teams had a runner place in the top 10 and others hit the finish line with either a season- or course-best time.
Leading the way for the girls team was medalist Jaydin Dettman, who finished the race in 21:12.1, which was good for second place and less than a minute out of first. Coral Rork also medaled, coming in 15th in 24:27.1. Ashlyn Scherf, who has had a course best in every meet this season by nearly a minute and a half, was 25th with a time of 25:59.5.
In fact, the entire team ran some of their best times, including Aspen Rork, who finished 27th, and Layla Embretson, who was a close 29th. Then a trio of Warriors finished together, with Madylen Gregerson, Alexis Thiese and Hannah Friedlein finishing 34th, 35th and 36th, respectively. Audrey Palas placed 47th.
The Warriors scored 86 points and finished fourth as a team, behind meet winners South Winneshiek, MFL MarMac and Charles City.
On the boys side, the team “has continued to be a bright spot…this season, as once again they were the top 1A team and a close second among our conference schools,” coach Mark Bauder said.
At the front of the field for the Warriors was medalist Gavin Holst, who finished seventh in 18:17.8. His 5:54 pace was less than 30 seconds off the race-winning pace of 5:25. Following Holst were Henry Reimer in 17th, who beat his personal best time by over a minute with a 19:48.9, and Michael White, who crossed a second behind Reimer in 18th in 19:49.5.
White has also “been cutting huge amounts of time off his last year’s times [by] more than six minutes for this meet,” Bauder said.
Also in the top 25 was Jesse Polkinghorn, who finished 25th and beat his personal best by over a minute, crossing the line in 20:49.0. Vaughn Zittergruen followed in 30th, Carter Krugger in 34th, Caden Fette in 36th, Bryce Heller in 45th and Carson Ruegnitz in 47th.
The Warriors finished in third place with a score of 83, behind meet winners Charles City and second-place Postville.
Central’s next meet was Sept. 19, at the Waukon Golf and Country Club.
