The Southeast Valley cross country teams travelled to Story City on Thursday, September 25^th for the Norseman Invitation in which half of the teams are in class 3A which is up a class from the Jaguars; several of these teams are also ranked as the top 20 in their respective classes. 

              On the girl’s side of the meet, due to sickness, the Jaguars did not have enough runners compete to have a team score, however class 3A #8 ranked Ballard won the meet with 52 points, followed by #11 Boone with 64 and #10 North Polk with 73 points. Class 1A #2 Madrid was 4^th and class 2A #13 Roland Story was fifth.

              Senior Katie Field led the girls’ team with a 67^th place and a season best of 24:32. Also running season best times for the year were freshman Charlie Dorsey who finished the 5k in 26:28 (90^th) and Meia Hefley finishing in 27:48 (97^th). Brooke Peterson finished 109^th running 28:47 after battling some sickness going around last week.

              The boys’ side of the field was equally tough as the top 6 teams were from class 3A. #11 Bondurant Farrar won the meet with an impressive 41 points followed by #20 Ballard with 119 points. Class 2A #17 Ogden finished 7^th overall with 183 points. The Jaguars were 10^th overall in the 14 team field with 253 points.

              Lincoln Akins, Owen Nuss and August Akins all used the fast fields to improve their season PRs. Lincoln finished 37^th in 18:15, Owen was right behind in 38^th running 18:24 and August finished in 19:01 for 48^th place. Drew Dorsey broke the 20-minute barrier for the second straight meet in 19:58 to finish 64^th. Carver Peterson wasn’t far behind running 20:15 (66^th). Ethan Tucker (74^th, 20:58) and Jackson Bintz (75^th, 20:59) rounded out the varsity top seven.

              The JV boys also competed on Thursday night have a superb night. Freshman Kasen Loeffler led the Jaguars running a career best of 20:08 to finish 23^rd. Logan Bintz also ran a season best time of 21:37 to finish 49^th. Blaise Echevarria tied his season best in 22:12 (57^th) and Oliver Riehl just missed his career best, but improved his season best to 22:34 (63^rd). Carter Ganoe was the fifth scorer for the JV boys running his season best 23:11 for 73^rd place.

              The Southeast Valley JV was 6^th in the team standings with 182 points. North Polk won the JV division with 37 points and Nevada was second with 50 points.

              Five other JV runners were able to also set career bests on Thursday night. They were Carter Lloyd (75^th, 23:22), Evan Kuhn (103^rd, 25:32), Logan Urelius (109^th, 29:01), Max Judson (111^th, 26:38) and Mason Newell (116^th, 29:41). Jacob Wicklein also finished the race after rolling an ankle in 28:04 to finish 114^th.

              The Jaguars will compete again this Saturday, October 4^th in Pocahontas before heading to Lake City next Tuesday, October 7^th.