Area cross country roundup: Clarke runs in Mount Ayr, Central Decatur new POI champ

BEDFORD – A competitive meet on a 70 degree October evening, the Pride of Iowa Conference Championship crowned a new team champion on the boys end for the first time in 10 years, while the reigning girls team champion retained their title.

The Class 2A No. 9 Central Decatur boys knocked off reigning Pride of Iowa champion, and winner since 2009, Class 1A No. 10 Nodaway Valley.

The Cardinals scored 38 points to the Wolverines’ 48.

“Once you (win) it, then you start to believe you can do it,” Central Decatur Reece Tedford said. “It’s just kind of like a psychological barrier. Nobody had (beat Nodaway Valley) for so long, you just kind of wonder. Now, we’re like, ‘OK, we can do this. Maybe we can start our own run.”

Nodaway Valley’s girls secured the top spot as a team. The win marks the 33rd conference championship since 1997, tallying No. 14 for the girls in that stretch.

The Wolverines finished with 46 points, four ahead of Mount Ayr’s 50 team points, and 12 ahead of Central Decatur in third place.

Central Decatur’s Class 2A No. 4 Will Gillis finished in in second (16:49.16), behind Southeast Warren’s Class 1A No. 4 Randy Jimenez in first (16:05.51) and ahead of Nodaway Valley’s Class 1A No. 23 Toby Bower (17:06.66) in third place. All three were state-qualifiers in 2019.

Jimenez, Gillis and Bower started out the race with an early lead, all near each other. As the race progressed, Jimenez extended his lead on Gillis and Bower. Gillis started to separate himself from Bower with around one mile left.

Tyson McDole took sixth place for the Cardinals, running a time of 17:19.91. The final three scorers finished in consecutive spots, all finishing in the top-11 runners.

Tate Swartz (17:57.66), Vincent Carcamo (18:21.87) and Glenn Oesch (18:29.83) took home ninth, 10th and 11th places, respectively.

On the girls end, Hadley Bell finished in fifth place, running a time of 22:08.39. Harrisen Bevan (22:23.35) and Aniston Jones (22:28.01) finished back-to-back in eighth and ninth places, respectively. Haley and Jamie Oesch rounded out scorers in 23 and 24th places, respectively, with times of 25:03.81 and 25:24.49.

“Overall, a good day. It just feels good to get it off,” Tedford said. “It’s one of those things where you’re a little stressed until you actually do it, then breathe a sigh of relief. We have the same feeling about districts too. We want to get to state as a team, and if we run like we did today I think we’ve got a good chance.”

Ron Landphair Invitational

MOUNT AYR – Coming off the POI Championship two days prior, Central Decatur ran a limited group at the Ron Landphair Invitational Thursday.

The Cardinal girls finished in sixth place, while Clarke’s girls did not field a team.

Jones was the high scorer for Central Decatur, coming in sixth place with a time of 22:21.39. Bevan finished in 12th place (23:26.71).

Clarke’s Katie Donaldson took eighth place, running a time of 22:38.28 as the only girl.

Class 2A No. 9 Central Decatur boys finished in eighth place with 173 points, just ahead of Clarke’s 217 points in ninth place.

Swartz was the high scorer for the Cardinals, finishing in 12th place with a time of 18:38.38. Matthew Patience (20:14.93) and Jack Greenwood (20:31.18) were the other top-three finishers in 31st and 36th places, respectively.

For Clarke, Calhoun Lundquist was the top scorer in 26th places (19:58.41). Steven Hiatt took home 47th place with a time of 21:13.38, and Seth Johnson finished in 61st place (21:51.28).