The Southeast Valley cross country teams competed at Pocahontas on Saturday; October 4^th in the Pocahontas Area meet. In a meet that normally has cooler fall temperatures that results in faster times, the Jaguars and rest of the field was meant with unseasonable warm temperatures and strong winds. While the conditions may have played a factor in very few season PRs set, most of the team only missed improving their best times by a few seconds.

              In the boys’ side of the meet, Lincoln Akins and Owen Nuss were able to earn medalist honors. Lincoln passed Owen coming down the final stretch to finish in 13^th place (18:39) and Owen finished 15^th (18:43). August Akins just missed the top 20 medalist’s honors, finishing 26^th overall in a time of 19:24. Freshman Kasen Loeffler was the fourth finisher for the Jaguars, finishing 42^nd overall in 20:21, while Carver Peterson was the fifth scorer finishing the course in 21:03 for 52^nd. Jackson Bintz (53^rd, 21:08) and Ethan Tucker (59^th, 21:26) were the displacement scorers for Southeast Valley.

              The Jaguars finished 6^th overall in a very close team standings with 128 points. Class 2A #13^th ranked Okoboji won the meet with 69 points, followed by class 1A, #7 East Sac County with 76 points. Manson NW was third with 106 points and class 1A #10 Sioux Central was fourth with 112 points.

On the girls side, Southeast Valley was 9^th overall with 229 points. Class 1A #9 ranked Sioux Central won the meet with 58 points, followed by #10 Newell Fonda with 60 points. Humboldt was third with 63 points. Katie Field led the girls team finishing 39^th overall in 24:38. The next three SV runners all finished in season best times. Ruby Stimpson ran a 25:13 (42^nd), Charlie Dorsey finished in 25:38 (49^th) and 27:15 was overall time for Brooke Peterson (66^th). Meia Hefley was only five seconds off her season best when she crossed the finish line in 27:53 (69^th).

Ten JV runners also competed on Saturday in the high school boys’ race. Oliver Riehl tied his season best in 22:34 (78^th) and Carter Ganoe took six seconds off his season best to finish in 23:05 (95^th). Other JV finishers for the Jaguars were Drew Dorsey (63^rd, 21:44), Logan Bintz (73^rd, 22:09), Blaise Echevarria (82^nd, 22:37), Carter Lloyd (100^th, 23:29), Jacob Wicklein (126^th, 27:06), Max Judson (128^th, 27:35), Mason Newell (135^th, 31:03) and Logan Urelius (138^th, 36:04).

The Jaguars will next compete at Lake City on Tuesday, October 7^th in their final regular season of the meet. The varsity and JV will then compete again in the Twin Lakes Conference meet hosted by Sioux Central in Sioux Rapids on Thursday, October 16^th.