Eagles make decent showing at conference cross country meet

The Top of Iowa cross country meet was held last Thursday at the NIACC campus in Mason City. West Fork placed four runners in the top 18 to easily take the team crown with 64 points. They were followed in the top five by Newman Catholic at 98, St. Ansgar at 106, Central Springs at 112 and the Eagles at 129 points. Riley Witt of the Saints was the top individual in 17:04 at the finish line.

“We had a good meet,” stated head coach Ben Demuth. “I know the scores placed us fifth, which was not where I thought we would be. After running against most of these teams I thought we could pull out a top three finish. However, everyone and our team included ran some great times and unfortunately for us, though we gave a great effort, other teams had a better overall night. That does not in any way diminish how I felt about our team. 17 of our runners had season best times, and of those who did not they were extremely close to their best.”

Jon Koester finished very close behind him with a 17:09 in a fine effort. He was followed by: Tomas Rolon in 25th with 18:31; Drake Weland in 35th with 18:55; Josh Graham in 36th with 18:56; Cael Wesselink in 38th with 18:57; Jacob Graham in 46th with 19:10 and Justin Agtun in 50th with 19:27.

“Jon had a great race, and I was hoping he could earn the individual title and he gave it his very best effort,” said the head coach. “I thought he ran a great race, going past me at the mile mark in about fourth and working his way up by the time he was at the 2.5 mile mark. He was just a tad behind Riley, and even though I know he was disappointed his effort was outstanding. The rest of the varsity guys ran great races as well, as they packed up well and ran as a group throughout the race. They pushed themselves to pass other teams and that is the mentality we need heading into the qualifier.”

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