The Southeast Valley cross country teams made their second consecutive trip in as many years to Pella for the class 2A state qualifying meet held there on Thursday, October 24^th to try and punch their tickets to the state cross country meet.

               Needing to be one of the top three teams in the team standings to qualify for state, the Jaguar boys finished 10^th overall with 246 points and the girl’s finished 14^th with 358 points. In the boys’ race the top three teams and state qualifiers were Mid Prairie with 44, Anamosa with 74 and Pella Christian with 87 points. Mid-Prairie also was the top team on the girls’ side with 57 points, followed by Pella Christian with 86 and Hudson with 87 points. 

               The Jaguars also had a chance to qualify runners individually for the state meet by having an individual in the top 15. Owen Nuss was the highest place finisher for either the boys or girls finishing 38^th overall in the race in a time of 19:20. Katie Field was the top Jaguar to finish in the girl’s race taking 57^th in a time of 24:04.

               Drew Dorsey (53^rd, 20:03), Logan Bintz (65^th, 20:45), Kyeo Augustine (68^th, 20:49) and Hailey Rees (74^th, 25:34) all finished their season with season best times. Autumn Jones-Popp (67^th, 24:51) and Abbi Tucker (88^th, 30:04) along with Hailey and Owen ran faster at the 2A SQM at Pella than they did a year ago.

               Lincoln Akins (46^th, 19:30), Ethan Tucker (50^th, 19:53), Carver Peterson (59^th. 20:24), Brooke Peterson (79^th, 26:18), Meia Hefley (81^st, 26:34) and Amelia Christensen (91^st, 33:04) were the other Jaguars competing on Thursday in the meet and were not far off from their season best times.

               This concludes the 2024 season for the Jaguars. “We had a lot of improvement from the start of the season through September and then we kind of plateaued for some reason the last few weeks. With a lot of things, we can’t control that happened this fall, I am just proud how these kids stay focused and fought through their own emotions to keep competing,” commented Coach Nuss. 

About this year’s team, Coach Nuss says, “We had five great seniors this year who contributed both as leaders and competitors. Another group that we will greatly be missed next year, but we have a solid nucleus coming back with a lot of varsity experience that I can’t wait to see what they accomplish next year.”

“I also need to thank Coach Sorenson for all the little things and help to me and the athletes throughout the season and to our trainer Megan for keeping us healthy and competing. None of this happens either without the support of my family at home and being having the patience with the early mornings and late nights and time given up on weekends. There are many other people in the background that help make our season successful as well and anybody who had anything to do with our season, from helping or being at our home meet to being at our away meets, getting athletes to and from practice, or even a friendly wave and slowing down for the team during practices, we as a team and coaches say thank-you!”