Still early in the XC season, runners hitting their stride

Nodaway Valley cross country had high finishers in cross country meets at Ballard and Winterset in the past week

The boys team was unable to have a boys team score due to a minor injury junior Jack Jensen is nursing, however the group broke the 20-minute mark as a team for the first time this season, a goal head coach Darrell Burmeister had for them.

Senior Doug Berg, who is ranked ninth by the Iowa Association of Track Coaches, ran to an 11th-place finish with a time of 18:04.70.

Junior runner Malachi Broers was 25th, finishing in 18:40, and Burmeister is very pleased with how Broers is running behind Berg.

“They all did good,” Burmeister said. “Malachi is having a great year. He’s really closed up on Doug. That’s a good thing.”

Junior Tyler Cooper finished 56th (21:02.70) and Ben Piearson was 61st (21:19.70).

“Tyler really did well,” Burmeister said. “He was 2:30 under his best.”

In the girls’ race at Ballard, sophomore Jazz Christensen ran to a 36th place finish with a time of 23:15.00. Junior Annika Nelson finished 62nd in 26:42.8. Senior Lilly Day was 68th in 27:37.40. Senior Hope Kading was 73rd in 28:53.60.

The Winterset meet was divided into separate divisions for underclassmen and upperclassmen.

In the 9-10 girls’ race, Christensen placed 11th, finishing in 24:00.20. Ballard had the top three spots in that race. The Wolverines had no entrants in the boys’ 9-10 race.

In the 11-12 girls’ race, Orient-Macksburg’s Bridget Bracy was the top area finisher, finishing 12th in 24:19.58. Nodaway Valley was paced by Day, who finished 28th in a time of 27:45.39. Nelson was next in 28:08.56 to place 30th, and Kading was 36th in 30:26.17.

The boys’ 11-12 race featured all of NV’s boys. Berg ran an 18:01.11 to place sixth. Broers, a junior, placed 14th with a time of 18:45.83. Piearson was 36th in 22:13.97, Cooper took 40th in 22:41.31 and Jensen was 51st in 24:53.63.

Nodaway Valley’s boys placed fifth, scoring 116 points, behind Winterset’s 33, Des Moines Christian’s 41, Interstate 35′s 83 and Ballard’s 84.