With very successful seasons for both the girls and boys squads last fall, it’s going to be a challenge for the Pella High School cross country program to match that this year. That said, the Little Dutch appear to be in good position to do just that. The Pella girls cross country is ranked No. 3 in Class 3-A in the preseason poll, while the defending champion boys team is rated No. 6.

Pella Cross Country Coach Doug Cutler says the team has a lot of new runners this season, something he’s excited about; but that also presents some challenges for the Dutch.

“We’ve got 91 kids out this year. We graduated the largest class that we’ve ever had last year, and so we’ve got a great deal of turnover in who’s there and a lot of new faces,” said Cutler. “We’ve really been concentrating on getting all of those new faces acclimated to what we are trying to accomplish and make sure they’re aware of the tradition that this team has had over the past five years.”

The Pella Cross Country teams have another week of practice before their first meet of the season, as they open their 2010 campaigns at Southeast Polk on Tuesday, August 31st.

Tags: , , , ,