After Eagle boys head cross country coach Ben Demuth found out that their scheduled meet at Gilbert had been moved, and resulted in a conflict for them, the team packed up and headed for Iowa Falls where the Lady Eagles were already set to compete.
The back-up plan worked pretty good as the varsity took fifth place in the final team results. The meet was won by Humboldt with just 26 points, followed by Clear Lake at 60, Newman Catholic at 85, East Marshall at 96, Eagles at 141, Hampton-Dumont/CAL at 144, Iowa Falls-Alden at 182 and Aplington-Parkersburg at 225. Quinton Orr of the Wildcats crossed in 16:27.80 for first place.
“It was very hot and humid, with a feels like temp of 100 degrees at race time,” stated head coach Ben Demuth. “The course is fairly covered by trees, and there was a bit of a breeze that kept things decent. The guys did not complain one bit, and I think they were just ready to get out and compete. Our goal is to finish in the top half of the teams competing, whether they be full squads or not, and our fifth-place finish achieved that goal. Overall, I thought both the varsity and JV did well considering we are not in shape yet due to the shortened summer. We did pack up well as a team, and that was nice to see. Our goal moving forward is to continue to do that, but move the pack forward in placings so we can be more competitive with other teams. We don’t have a stand out runner yet that can lead us up front like Jon (Koester) did, but I think as a team that if we run as a pack we will be more successful than in the past.”
The Eagles were led by Justin Agtun in 22nd with a 20:19.80 time. He was followed on the team by: Noah Thul in 20:53.80 for 27th; Jensen Cooper in 21:25.90 for 34th; Drake Weland in 21:26.40 for 36th; Cael Wesselink in 21:28.90 for 37th; Derricklee Harms in 23:08.10 for 53rd; Alex Gaspar in 23:41.20 for 61st and Josue Castro-aroche in 23:52.80 for 62nd.
In the JV portion, Humboldt also took the team title with Clear Lake second, IF-A third and the Eagles fourth. Eagle times and finish positions were as follows: Alex Frakes in 20:36.20 for 10th; Cael Schafer in 22:05.20 for 20th; Felix Gaspar in 23:27.80 for 30th; Brandon Crail in 24:05.00 for 34th and Jose Lizama in 26:31.40 for 38th.
“Justin ran a good opening time for the season as our leader, and Noah continues to impress as a freshman and learned a great deal about being a varsity runner for his first time out,” said the coach. “Cael, Jensen and Drake all ran the course together and with some more conditioning for them they could make us a tough team. I was also super impressed with Derricklee as this was his first varsity competition in over a year and he is getting stronger and more confident in his abilities and will be a major contributor for the season. In JV, I was pleased to see how well Alex ran in leading our efforts in that race. He has done a nice job in practice and he did a good job overall at this meet.”
