Times continue to lower for area runners

Coming into this week, Nodaway Valley had a couple of big meets on the horizon. They took time Friday for their traditional garage sale practice in Greenfield to bond together before hitting the competition course.

The Wolverines ran Thursday, Sept. 7 at Winterset, where the boys team was fourth, with 89 points, behind team champion Winterset (22 points), runner-up Martensdale-St. Marys (66) and third-place Ballard (77). The girls are not a large enough team for a team score.

“This was our second meet, and it was definitely awesome,” said NV coach Brooke Wilson. “Everybody decreased their times by a couple minutes. The boys were fourth as a team, and that’s really, really great. Everybody improved their times, so that was awesome.”

Senior Malachi Broers was NV’s fastest runner on the day, turning in an 18:07.34 for 12th place. Freshman runner Bryar Hudson impressed with a 14th place finish, clocking in at 18:10.80.

Haden Colton was 21st (18:46.84), Luke and Paul Kading 25th and 26th (18:58.06 and 19:17.50), Tyler Cooper 35th (19:47.73), Sam Miler 46th (20:54.87) and Jack Jensen 74th (25:24.75).

“I expect to see Malachi and Bryar, who was just a second behind, Malachi at Winterset, to continue staying up at the top. Luke, Paul and Haden all have the ability to get up there with them too,” Wilson said. “I’m excited to see if that continues to play out, and I hope they continue to have better and better times.”

On the girls’ side, Nodaway Valley was paced by junior Jazz Christensen, who was 22nd in a time of 22:53.85. Senior runner Annika Nelson was 44th with at time of 26:13.45 and freshman Kaylee Van Horn 47th in 27:24.68.

“The girls are already doing better than they had last year at this time, so I’m excited about that,” Wilson said. “I just want to see improvement and to stay injury free. Those are my two main goals.”

Orient-Macksburg’s Bridget Bracy placed 30th with a time of 23:45.79. On the boys side, the Bulldogs had Andreas Pierce placing 50th (21:18.34) and Izzy Pierce 69th (24:22.39).

Nodaway Valley ran in the Class B race at a large meet at Ballard Monday, which had over 1,200 runners registered.

Christensen finished 43rd, leading the girls at Ballard. She clocked in at 23:37.40. Nelson was 59th in 26:44.80 and Van Horn 65th in 23:09.50.

On the boys side, the Wolverines came in sixth in their division with 188 points.

Malachi Broers finished 31st for the boys, finishing in 19:12.60. Taking 35th was Bryar Hudson in 19:33.20 while Paul Kading was 37th (19:48.70), Luke Kading 41st (20:07.60), Hayden Colton 44th (20:13.90), Tyler Cooper 50th (20:40.70) and Jack Jensen 68th (26:37.00).

Thursday the Wolverines were to run at Panorama.