Senior Cowboy cross country runner Isaiah Nebbe is headed to Fort Dodge following the qualifying meet last Thursday in Eagle Grove. He posted an 18:02.52 for ninth place overall to easily punch his ticket for a final run of his high school career at Lakeside Golf Course.
The boys finished 12th as a team, with Des Moines Christian taking three of the top seven spots to win the team crown. Denver, Grundy Center/Gladbrook-Reinbeck, Forest City and Dike-New Hartford followed them in the top five of 14 full teams. Carson Houg of DMC finished in 16:37.74 to win the individual gold.
Following Nebbe across the finish line were teammates Kaeden Langfitt in 20:15.20 for 68th, Jacob Ingebritson in 20:32.12 for 74th, Luke Brownell in 20:55.26 for 77th, Nick Carpenter in 93rd, Jackson Beisel in 95th and Ian Schroder in 97th.
“Isaiah ran his best time of the season to qualify for state!” said a pleased coach Daniel Murray. “He is the first boy to make it to state since Nathan Davis in 2011. He had a good start to the race, and was able to maintain his position at around tenth throughout the entire race. Kaeden had a rough last mile. He was hoping to finish out his high school career with a better run. Jacob and Luke ran much of the race together to finish in the top 80. As a team, we were hoping to be in the top ten so it was not our best performance of the year.”
For the girls team race, Denver took the title with 42 points followed by Dike-New Hartford with 58, Des Moines Christian with 74, Pocahontas Area with 152, and Emmetsburg with 169. Amber Homan of Denver crossed in 20:06.40 for first place.
Raven Kinnetz finished a fine high school running career with a 22:37.17 for 20th place overall, and was less than 20 seconds from making the cut-off time. Following her on the team were Makayla Pulido in 25:29.11 for 61st, Natalie Kirstein in 25:54.01 for 66th and Lauren Hansch in 32:46.09 for 90th at the finish line.
“Raven and Makayla ran very close to the times that they ran at the same course about two weeks earlier,” said Murray. “That was despite the weather being much colder and more windy. Raven closed out her cross country career with the highest placing for a CGD girl since Kenzie Alberts in 2015. She also qualified as Academic All-State in the sport. Natalie finished out her high school career with a time close to her season best.”
Nebbe will run on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. in the 2A boys race. The awards for the class start at around 11:50 a.m. Lakeside/Kennedy Park is located just northwest of Rogers Sports Complex.
