Wolverines take silver at O-M Invite

ORIENT — The weather was perfect Monday evening for a run around Lake Orient. Several area teams competed in the Orient-Macksburg Cross Country Invitational including East Union, Nodaway Valley, Diagonal and host O-M.

“I think this is a great meet for two reasons – one, there’s a lot of good vantage points, so you get to see your runners come by a couple different times without running all over a golf course to do it,” O-M coach Dave Hartman said. “And it’s also a true cross country course. It’s hilly — there’s sticks, dead fish and raccoons maybe depending on what time of year you’re running.”

Though the Bulldogs don’t have enough runners to score as a team, Hartman said the meet is important to give the runners a chance to race at home.

“The main thing is, this is the only time they get to run at home in front of their fans,” Hartman said. “We don’t have a huge following for cross country, so the main reason we host our own meet is so Orient kids get to run in front of Orient people.”

Boys

The Nodaway Valley boys took second place behind an impressive Earlham team who finished five runners together in third through seventh places.

Junior Wolverine Malachi Broers finished in second (18:44.14) after leading the race for the first two miles. East Union’s Jacob Driskell (18:34.75) came in to finish strong and take the top place from Broers.

While the East Union coach Erik Niggemeyer said he knew Driskell had a chance to win, Driskell was more focused on his personal growth.

“I just wanted to push myself and give it everything I’ve got,” Driskell said. “My last half mile, mile is usually the strongest, so I just push it then and give it everything I’ve got.”

With homecoming the week previous, Niggemeyer said the runners did well based on how the activities affect the athletes.

“I thought they ran well,” he said. “[Driskell] looked really strong, he looked really good. I think he ran as good of a race as he could have, especially with that kick at the end. He usually has a nice kick. Keeping him close enough that he could catch him at the end was a good strategy on his part.”

Bryar Hudson (20:01.16) took second for the Wolverines, finishing just behind the pack of Earlham runners.

Carter Lumbard led the way for Diagonal with a 10th place finish in 20:11.06. The Maroons took third as a team.

Paul Kading, Luke Kading and Haden Colton came in consecutively for Nodaway Valley, placing 11th, 12th and 13th. They were followed by Owen Whittington of Diagonal.

The Orient-Macksburg boys were led by Andreas Pierce (22:27.62), who finished 23rd.

“We’re always competing against ourselves. It’s us against us instead of us against the world,” Hartman said. “I’m impressed with the boys and their attitude and the way they show up every day. They’re going to be in the middle of the pack at most races depending on the meet, but they always finish strong and stay pretty positive.”

Girls

There were no area teams with enough runners to score in the girls race, Earlham taking the win with 30 points.

Nodaway Valley’s Jazz Christensen led the team with a seventh-place finish in 23:45.17.

In ninth was East Union’s Jillian Valencia who ran a 24:11.13. “She ran a good race,” Niggemeyer said. “She’s battling some aches and pains that made her training more inconsistent. Any time it’s race time, she goes and puts in a good effort. We just need to get her feeling better so she can get in the conditioning in that she needs to get better.”

There were big cheers from the home crowd as Bulldog senior Bridget Bracy crossed in 24:38.62 for 11th place.

“We’re really trying to improve our times a little bit each week to get ourselves in a position to maybe qualify for a state meet. Bridget’s not really far off, we’d like to get her down to 21. She’s pretty consistent between 23:30 and 24:30. So, we think if we can shave a couple minutes off that through the rest of the season, we’d like to qualify her as a senior.”

Kaylee Van Horn (26:36.81) and Annika Nelson (27:07.90) took second and third for the Wolverines finishing 21st and 25th, respectively.

Stats

BOYS TEAMS

1. Earlham, 20

2. Nodaway Valley 38

3. Diagonal, 87

4. West Central Valley, 92

GIRLS TEAM

1. Earlham, 30

2. AHSTW, 39

3. West Central Valley, 69

4. CAM, Anita, 99