The start of Pella Christian’s cross country season is just over a week away, and some younger athletes are making a push to be a part of the varsity boys’ squad in time for the first meet of the season.  

Eagles’ head coach Jocelyn Meinders says while she traditionally prefers to have underclassmen gain some experience at the JV level first, she does think that some of them may be ready for varsity competition.  

A notable example is freshman Jake Lensing, who Meinders says is far from an inexperienced runner and spent his summer logging a lot of miles and training with veteran runners.  Lensing and some of his fellow underclassmen may get their shot to start the season running on the varsity team.  

Meinders says that will be an important decision she makes as the Pella Christian boys get in one more week of practice before next Saturday’s Pella High Invitational.