While the Southeast Valley cross country teams are still waiting for the cool fall temperatures that are normally associated with the end of the cross-country season, the Jaguars were once again met with warmer than normal temperatures and windy conditions as they battled a hilly course in Sioux Rapids on Thursday, October 16th at the Twin Lakes Conference meet in Sioux Rapids. 

           Individually the highlights for the night were Lincoln Akins and Owen Nuss earning conference medalist honors after both had just missed them the previous two years. Lincoln finished 10th overall in a time of 18:45 and Owen hung on to the last medalist spot finishing 15th in 19:10. Lincoln and Owen led the team to a 5th place team finish only four points behind 4th place Manson NW. East Sac County and Sioux Central both continued their dominant year with ESC winning the meet with 50 points and Sioux Central 2nd with 53. Alta Aurelia’s boys had an outstanding night to claim 3rd place overall with 89.

           A pair of freshmen in August Akins and Kasen Loeffler were the next two Jaguars to cross the finish line finishing 22nd and 23rd overall in respective times of 19:54 and 20:07. Senior Ethan Tucker was the fifth runner for Southeast Valley claiming 30th in 20:53, while sophomore Carver Peterson (32nd, 20:59) and Drew Dorsey (37th, 21:14) were the final two varsity runners to cross the finish line.

           Katie Field was the top Jaguar on the girls’ race finishing 24th overall in a time of 25:06. Charlie Dorsey was 29th in 26:09, followed by Ruby Stimpson (40th, 28:11), Brooke Peterson (47th, 29:42) and Meia Hefley (48th, 31:02). The girls finished 6th overall with a score of 159 points. Sioux Central won the girls’ race in 33 points, Manson NW was 2nd with 73 points and Alta-Aurelia was 3rd with 78 points.

           The Southeast Valley boys’ JV team competed in their final meet of the season on Thursday as well. The Jaguars scored 53 points to finish 2nd. Sioux Central’s JV won the JV race with 26 points.

           Senior Oliver Riehl led the JV boys on Thursday and was the only Jaguars to set both a season and career PR running 22:15 to finish 5th. Blaise Echevarria (6th, 22:12), Carter Ganoe (8th, 22:44), Logan Bintz (15th, 23:19) and Carter Lloyd (19th, 24:23) were the other four scorers for the Jaguars. 

           Evan Kuhn (26th, 27:20), Max Judson (27th, 28:06), Jacob Wicklein (29th, 29:02), Logan Urelius (32nd, 31:16) and Mason Newell (33rd, 32:00) also competed in their final meet of the season on Thursday in Sioux Rapids.

           The varsity teams will compete one more time on Thursday, October 23rd at the class 2A state qualifying meet in Eagle Grove looking to extend their season one more week by qualifying for the class 2A state meet held in Fort Dodge on Friday, October 31st. The girls’ race is at 4:00pm followed by the boys at 4:40pm.