Photo courtesy of Troy L. Hugen Photography

The Pella Christian boys cross country team has become a consistent model of success in Class 2A, finding themselves running against the best teams in the state year after year.

The Eagles finished their fall season with yet another appearance at the State Meet last week, marking the fifth consecutive year the program has competed in Fort Dodge. This year, the Pella Christian boys recorded a ninth place finish, marking their third top-ten finish in the last five seasons. In their previous four trips to State, the Eagles took 5th in 2021, 7th in 2022, 14th in 2023, and 13th last fall. Head coach Mike Buchheit says that one of the key factors in the program’s consistent success has been the boys dedication to offseason workouts.

“The top group on the boys side put a lot of miles in this summer and it was a season where most of those boys, from freshmen to sophomores or sophomores to juniors, they took off about a minute to a minute fifteen or twenty seconds off for most races. But yeah, it was a solid season, and frankly, we’re not going to skip a beat if we have anything close to a similar preparation for next season.”

Pella Christian graduates six boys from the program in Sawyer Meinders, Paxton Bouma, Logan Gallaher, Jackson Wood, Keegan Juffer, and Liam Zula.