Photo courtesy of Troy L. Hugen Photography
The Pella Christian cross country teams opened the 2025 season Thursday with a pair of third place finishes at the Marshalltown Early Bird Meet, while the Eagles girls tennis team dominated Oskaloosa en route to a 10-1 victory.
Running at Marshalltown Community College, the Pella Christian girls cross country squad posted a team score 77, while the boys team had 94 team points. The Eagle boys matched North Polk’s score of 94, but were scored third due to the tiebreaker determined by the sixth place runner. Bailey Vos, who entered the season ranked #10 individually in Class 2A, led the Pella Christian girls in the meet with a seventh place finish (22:34.2). Julia Shmalcs wasn’t far behind in 13th (23:05.1), while Hayley Rens (23:29.5), Greta Vos (23:32.1), Keilah Schiebout (23:41.7) took 20th-22nd. The Eagle boys were led by Griffin Stoltz (18:15.5) and Will Vanden Bosch (18:20.3), who finished in ninth and tenth place respectively. Paxton Bouma wasn’t far behind the duo in 13th place (18:59), while Joel Pogany finished in 29th (19:55.8) and Jay Patterson finished in 38th (20:24.3). Find full results from the Marshalltown Early Bird Meet here.
On the tennis courts, Pella Christian cruised past Oskaloosa, sweeping singles play and winning four of the five doubles matches. In singles action, Ava Breems cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 win at #1, while Trinley Gibson added a 6-1, 6-0 victory at #2. Lexi Branderhorst won her #3 singles match 6-2, 6-2, and Chloe Nikkel was victorious 6-0, 6-0 at #4. Kate Braafhart added a 6-2, 6-1 win at #5 singles, while Elsa Breems closed out singles play with a 6-1, 6-2 victory at #6. In doubles play, the Eagles took the top four matches in the lineup to improve to 6-1 overall on the season, with Ava and Lexi at #1 and Trinley and Chloe at #2 each winning 6-2, 6-4, Kate and Elsa winning 6-3, 6-1 at #3, and Ava Nikkel and Clair Van Wyngarden winning 6-2, 6-3 at #4.
The Pella Christian girls tennis team returns to action next Thursday to host Newton, while the Eagles cross country teams are off until running at the Dutch Invitational on Saturday, September 6th at Central College.