The Twin Lakes Conference cross country meet on Thursday, October 15th gave the teams the same thing they have been battling all year - rain, wet conditions and wind with slightly colder temperatures. None of these seem to rattle the Jaguars as the boys were able to claim the top honor winning the team title as 14 runners found career best and 4 others had season best, not to mention rewriting some of the SV record book.

The boys were led by four conference medalists. Senior Owen Nuss finally broke the 18 minute mark, clocking a 6th place time of 17:41, which was also 6th fastest in school history. August Akins also added his name to the top 15 times with his 10th place finish of 18:11. Freshman Griffin Vote set the all-time freshman best time running 18:22 for 13th place. Kasen Loeffler was the final medalist for Southeast Valley finishing 14th in 18:25. Landon Vote just missed out on conference medalist honors, finishing 16th in a career best 18:31.  

The five boys totaled 55 points to win the meet. Second place was Sioux Central with 71 points, followed by Manson NW with 76 and Newell Fonda with 95 points.

Also running career best times were the Jaguars’ displacement runners Grant Peterson and Wyatt Blair. Grant finished in a time of 19:26 for 23rd place while Wyatt Blair was 26th in a clocking of 19:42.  

On the girls’ side, Southeast Valley found 7th place with 165 points. Manson won it with 32 points, while Newell Fonda was 2nd with 66 points and Alta Aurelia was third with 114 points.

Emily Wilson was the Jaguars top runner, just missing a conference medal of her own by .5 of a second to finish 16th place. Emily’s 22:21 was the 6th fastest time in school history. Aleeyah Hoefer also set an all-time best of 23:44 which put her 13th on the list and 28th in the meet. Charlie Dorsey was 38th overall with a season best of 25:03 and Adelle Fors was next in 50th place in 25:48. Ruby Stimpson finished 62nd (27:27) and Meia Hefley tied her season best in 27:57 (67th).

JV boys competing on Thursday and running career best times were Eli Rude (50th, 21:21), Carter Lloyd (58th, 22:29), Turner Ahlers (59th, 22:32), Mason Newell (68th, 23:22) and Jace Skoglund (89th, 33:13). Jacob Wicklein (82nd, 26:17) and Max Judson (87th, 28:23) had season best times. Henry Sandstrom (32nd, 20:08), Jackson Bintz (33rd, 20:10), and Moses Cunigan (86th, 27:48) just missed their career PRs.

“It’s always exciting to win a conference title, but we as coaches were proud of how all of our athletes ran on Thursday night. The conditions weren’t the best, but we went out and competed and that’s all we can ask for as coaches,” commented Coach Nuss.

This was the final meet of the season for JV runners. Varsity will compete again next Thursday at Eagle Grove for the class 2A state qualifying meet where the Jaguars will try to qualify for the 2A state meet at Fort Dodge on Friday, October 30th.