A few passing clouds. Low 64F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph..
A few passing clouds. Low 64F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.
Updated: September 5, 2023 @ 11:15 pm
Van Buren County sophomore Rylee Phillips (2993), Fairfield senior Carley Seeley (2811) and Ottumwa senior Jasmine Luedtke (2906) race together during the first lap of the girls’ cross-country race on Thursday at Wildwood Park in Ottumwa.
Pekin sophomore Chloe Glosser (2948) crosses the finish line in first place, winning the high school girls cross-country race on Thursday at Wildwood Park in Ottumwa.
Ottumwa senior Mariano Chojolan Chavez (2933) waves to the crowd while running in front of Bulldog boys cross-country teammates Luke Mellin (2930) and Garek Lindberg (2926) with Cardinal teammates Aliijah Frase (2711) and Cayden Courtney (2710) as well as Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont freshman David Eckert (2787) during action on Thursday at Wildwood Park in Ottumwa.
Courier senior sports writer
Van Buren County sophomore Rylee Phillips (2993), Fairfield senior Carley Seeley (2811) and Ottumwa senior Jasmine Luedtke (2906) race together during the first lap of the girls’ cross-country race on Thursday at Wildwood Park in Ottumwa.
Pekin sophomore Chloe Glosser (2948) crosses the finish line in first place, winning the high school girls cross-country race on Thursday at Wildwood Park in Ottumwa.
Ottumwa senior Mariano Chojolan Chavez (2933) waves to the crowd while running in front of Bulldog boys cross-country teammates Luke Mellin (2930) and Garek Lindberg (2926) with Cardinal teammates Aliijah Frase (2711) and Cayden Courtney (2710) as well as Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont freshman David Eckert (2787) during action on Thursday at Wildwood Park in Ottumwa.
OTTUMWA — It was close for a few minutes on Thursday.
Chloe Glosser knew it would be. The Pekin sophomore also knew that she was about to run away from the field.
After moving into position with Fairfield senior Carley Seeley right behind Jedlicka Emmerson of North Mahaska moving up the first hill of the Wildwood Park cross-country meet on Thursday, Glosser sprinted ahead as the runners headed down the hill along Shaul Avenue. The poise of the returning state qualifier led to an impressive showing for Glosser who crossed the finish line almost 97 seconds ahead of Ottumwa senior Jasmine Luedtke finishing the race in 18:55.59 leading the eighth-ranked (1A) Panther girls to their first team title of the season beating the Bulldogs by 23 points (56-79) in the second meet of the season for both area squads.
“Our coaches help a lot and tell us to drive our knees going up those hills, but to never forget about that downhill run,” Glosser said. “People normally charge up the hills and just ease down the hills. That was really the key to it. I kept running hard down hill and it really helped get me going.”
Both Pekin teams had a slight advantage heading into Wildwood Park on Thursday as both teams opened the season running at the Albia Invitational on Monday. The challenging course provided an even steeper hill to climb on the Albia Country Club golf course, making the hills of Wildwood Park easier to take on.
“The hills at Albia made it a lot easier to figure out how to run hills and contain stamina,” Pekin senior Jaedon Wolver said after leading the Panther boys on Thursday finishing sixth in 17:10. “It really taught me to stride out on those down hills, because I can make up a lot of time that I missed out on those up hills.”
Fifth-ranked (2A) Mediapolis prevented the Pekin boys from joining the girls as team champions at Wildwood. Solomon Zaugg and Owen Schmidgall picked up the lead early and never relinquished the top two spots for the Bulldogs with Zaugg edging Schmidgall by 1.1 seconds, finishing the boys race winning in 15:55 as Mediapolis finished with 44 points, 34 better than Pekin as the Southeast Iowa Superconference produced the top three boys teams in the meet.
“I was really pleased with the boys,” Pekin head cross-country coach Davis Eidahl said. “They’re young kids, but they’re starting to come on. We started slow this summer. By the end of September, I think each week we’ll get a little bit better.”
Danville edged the Ottumwa boys out for third place by three points (102-105) as Jackson Shacklett led the Bears with a third-place run of 16:41.07. Garrett Pumphrey, running at the Wildwood meet for the first time as a varsity runner, placed 11th in 17:45.92 to lead the Bulldog boys.
“I definitely saw some strides and some improvements from the boys, which is what you want to see,” Ottumwa head boys cross-country coach Rick Tanner said. “When you really dissect the data, it shows just how much of an improvement these boys have made. Quenton Mitchell dropped almost five minutes on Saturday at Johnston from the same course and same meet as last year. How can a coach be upset with that?
“Garrett was about a minute faster in this meet compared to Saturday’s meet at Johnston. The distance here was a little shorter, but the hills here are also much tougher. That’s a solid improvement this early in the season.”
Lucas Peace secured his first top-20 run for the Bulldog boys, finishing 20th in 18:43.61 leading a pack of Ottumwa runners in the top 30 that included Waulfret Morales (23rd in 17:45.92), Alex Gomez-Cantarero (27th in 19:32.93) and Logan Toloza (29th in 19:36.07). Peace is in his first year running organized cross-country coming to Ottumwa this year from his home country of Brazil.
“He’s never run on a team, but he showed me video of a race he won in Brazil,” Tanner said of Peace. “It looked like he was running through some tough terrain and he still wound up breaking the tape at the end of it. He’s having a great time being part of an organized team.”
Peace, however, is still learning about the terrain of the courses in southeast Iowa. Like many of the runners on Thursday, the hills made the difference for Ottumwa senior running at Wildwood.
“I think I went out too fast and that caught up to me later in the race,” Peace said. “I’ve run a lot over the past few years just to stay healthy and I’ve run a few races, but nothing like this. I have to get used to running in a pack. These hills were much worse than Johnston. I went out fast and, by the time I got to the first hill, I started slowing down.”
Ottumwa’s top female runner, however, used her knowledge of the course to stride into second place after battling throughout the first half of the race for a top-five position. Luedtke broke away from a pack of runners that included Fairfield senior Carley Seeley, Pekin senior Lauren Steigleder and Van Buren County sophomore Faith Neeley over the second lap of the race edging Seeley by 3.66 seconds for second place posting a time of 20:31.54.
“A lot of it came down to positioning,” Luedtke said. “I knew how good Chloe is. I also knew how close it would be for the team title between us and Pekin. I just wanted to make sure no one else from Pekin got past me going into that second lap. Having that mentality of not letting anyone pass me on that second lap is a good attitude to have.
“I’ve been telling Jasmine that she looks like she’s in control of the race this year,” Ottumwa head girls cross-country coach Kristin Mitchell added. “She used to start out really fast and would kind of die coming in. This year, both here and at Johnston, she’s controlled the pace and controlled the race. She’s been able to work her way up throughout the meets. Everything seems like it’s clicking for her right now.”
Joining Luedtke in the top 20 for the Bulldog girls were Yaeli Carapia, who placed 17th in 22:52.64. Kaelin McElderry placed 18th in 22:56.81 and Sylvie Monaghan placed 20th in 23:08.07.
The Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont girls finished fourth with 104 points, led by a 13th-place run by Abby Jager in 22:32.15. Fairfield finished fifth with 124 points, led by Seeley’s third-place run.
“Going into the second half of the race, it’s all about having a positive mental attitude,” Seeley said. “We were excited to run. We had an extra week of training. Based on what we’ve done in this meet, we’re on an upward trajectory already for the season.”
Rylee Phillips led Van Buren County, finishing fifth in 21:24.07. Audrey Fariss rounded out the top 10 for Pekin, finishing sixth in 21:42.85 while Addy Yates led the Sigourney girls, finishing ninth in 21:55.93 with the elevation of Wildwood helping make the difference.
“I went up the hills better than I usually do,” Yates said. “I try to work on hills at least once a week. This was about three minutes better than I ran at this race last year.”
“I definitely felt a lot stronger than I did at our first meet at Albia,” Phillips added. “I felt a lot better at our finish. I just worked at pushing myself harder and not let the mental part get in the way of my physical part of my running.”
Alexis Bissell led the Cardinal girls, finishing 51st in 26:06.85. Christian Vass led the Comet boys to a ninth-place finish with 245 points, placing 21st in 18:46.63.
Lincoln Bainbridge led the Van Buren County boys to a fifth-place finish with 124 points, crossing the finish line in fourth place in 16:51.85. Fairfield finished sixth with 131 points, led by a 10th-place run from Nate Knoczal in 17:44.83.
Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont finished 11th with 267 points with Gavin Spaur placing 22nd to lead the Rockets in 18:54.07. Troy Klett brought home a top-10 run for the Sigourney boys, finishing eighth in 17:43.29.
“Going down that last hill, it was a good chance to take down a couple of guys,” Klett said. “I was so tired I’m not sure how many guys I could catch at that point.”
— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.
Courier senior sports writer
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