Two of the top teams in their respective classes lived up to their rankings at Little Hawkeye Conference Tuesday night, as the 3A #1 Pella girls and 4A #1 Indianola boys secured the conference’s team championships at Pickard Park in Indianola.

Following the Pella girls in the team standings was 4A #15 Norwalk in 3rd, 4A #19 Indianola in 4th, 2A #3 Pella Christian in 5th, and Newton in 7th. The Indianola boys finished ahead of 4A #10 Norwalk in third, 3A #2 Pella in fourth, 2A #6 Pella Christian in 5th, and Newton in 7th.

The Dutch girls were led by Marissa Ferebee (17:45.7) who earned her third Little Hawkeye Conference individual title. The remaining four runners to score for Pella all secured top-ten finishes, with Elsie Brenneman taking 3rd (18:09.0), Lizzy Vande Voort finishing 5th (18:35.7), Carleigh Altwine taking 6th (19:05.5), and Ruth Dunham finishing in 7th (19:07.3). Porter Carlton led the way for the Dutch boys’ squad in 13th place (16:29.3), with teammate Mason Gaulke finishing less than second behind him in 14th (16:29.8). Brenneman said that it was fun to secure the girls program’s second straight league title and to have another opportunity to run with her friends.

“It’s just been so much fun, these girls are my best friends, and this is like my favorite thing in the world. We have such amazing coaches, we have such an amazing community, and it fills my heart so much and it makes me so happy to just be here doing what I love with them.”

Propelling the Indianola boys to the team title was Reed Robbins, who claimed his first career individual Little Hawkeye Conference title with a time of 15:37.4. Three other Indianola boys placed in the top 10 on Tuesday with Kiefer Barnes finishing fourth (16:05.8), Jake Robidoux taking eighth (16:18.3) and senior Paxton Bloom coming in 10th (16:23.2). Ady Mason paced the Indianola girls in ninth place (19:18.7), followed by Paige Hoger in 17th (20:03.9) and Calli Laxton in 18th (20:06.7). Robbins said that it meant a lot to win the conference title, and added that competing against Teegan Kralik and the rest of Norwalk’s squad has been fun.

“Teegan, the Norwalk guys – they’re brothers to us in Indianola, for sure,” he said. “Such a great group of guys, and to be so close in competition with Teegan just means so much. We’ve been racing them since eighth grade, and just to come out here, hang with him that whole time, be out front… We were the guys, back freshman year, fighting for that number 15 spot at conference. And here we are as seniors – out front, leading the group together – so it really means a lot to be able to be out here and race against him.”

The Norwalk boys were led in the meet by Kralik, who secured his second consecutive runner-up finish in the conference with a time of 15:42.9. Sam Parker wasn’t far behind in fifth place (16:12.6), while Lane Osterloh took 11th (16:28.1). The Warrior girls were led by Hannah Schmitz in eighth place (19:15.2), Gabby Drymon in 10th (19:25.9) and sophomore Olive DeRocher in 15th (19:45.6). 

The Pella Christian girls were led to their fifth place finish by Bailey Vos, who took 20th place (20:15.7), while Keilah Schiebout finished just 12 seconds behind her in 22nd place (20:27.7). Griffin Stoltz was the top finisher for the Eagle boys in 26th place (17:15.0), followed by Dean DeRonde in 33rd (17:55.1).

Audrey Muckler led the way for the Newton girls at the conference meet, finishing in 19th place (20:11.0). The Cardinal boys were paced by Cooper Christy (17:17.4) and Lance Zaabel (17:22.8), who took 27th and 29th respectively.

Click here for full results from the Little Hawkeye Conference cross country meet here. Teams are scheduled to learn their state qualifying meet destinations by Wednesday. Hear interviews with members of the Pella and Indianola girls cross country teams on Today’s Lely Radio Sports Page on KNIA/KRLS.