The Pella boys Cross Country team added yet another team title to their season’s accomplishments on Saturday, but this was the biggest of them all…winning the Class 3A team state championship after placing runner up the last two seasons. Pella came into the meet as the number one ranked team in Class 3A and backed that up by placing four runners in the top 20 at Saturday’s state meet to win the team title by a convincing 14 points over second place Boone.

The Little Dutch were led by Zach Buchheit in sixth place, which earned him all state honors, Jon Klein was 15th followed by Zach Wittenberg in 16th, and Nathan Buchheit finished 20th. Knoxville boys realized their goal of a top ten finish and placed ninth led by Jamie VanderVeer in 11th place. VanderVeer is only a junior but he, Alex Edwards, and Timothy Shepherd had to be the leaders since there were no seniors on the team. Coach Mike Moats never had to worry about their ability to get the team together. The Pella girls finished fifth in class 3A led by Victoria Kleven in 13th place. Knoxville Alissa VanKlootwyk was running as an individual and placed 74th, her final time was 17:34.

In class 2A Pella Christian boys placed sixth led by Joshua Meyer in 24th place, followed by Skyler Giddings in 25th, and Devin Veenstra finished 32nd. Several individuals from the area also competed. In Class 2A Michaela Martin from Pella Christian placed 40th while teammate Kim Van Zee was 67th, and Pleasantville’s Delaney Jensen was 29th. In class 1A boys Bryan Koerselman from Pleasantville was 31st, and in class 2A boys three P-C-M runners were at state led by Koelten Reed in 23rd, Jake Potter in 30th, and Kaleb Catron in 90th. A complete list of all area runners who participated at the State Cross Country Meet Saturday and their results can be found at kniakrls.com and click Sports.