The Oskaloosa Herald
OSKALOOSA —
The Oskaloosa boys cross country team picked up a third-place finish at the Oskaloosa Invitational Wednesday at Edmundson Park thanks to top-10 finishes from Skylar DeJong and Spencer DeJong.
The Oskaloosa girls placed sixth with Bailey Blythe collecting another high finish.
Skylar DeJong ran 17:23.1 to come in third overall while Spencer DeJong came in ninth in the time of 18:12.9.
The third-place finish (102 points) was the team’s best in quite a few years, according to Oskaloosa coach Keith Comfort.
“We had some good times by the guys,” he said. “Skylar continunes to be our top runner and had another great night. This is a tough course and the kids worked really hard. I saw progress in our four to seven runners tonight which was encouraging.
“The team as a whole did a poor job running through the finish. We can be much better in this area. Still need to be stronger on the bottom half of the varsity team, but making progress. Good overall effort.”
The junior varsity boys had season-best performances from Devion Versendaal and Tiki Anderson.
“The other thing we have to do better is compete and race against people,” Comfort said. “We are too content to sit in one place and run there. We are halfway through the season now and I like where we are. Now it is time to begin to get ready for the key meets of the year.”
Blythe finished second ovrall as she ran 16:16.4, leading the team to a sixth-place finish and 151 points. Kelsey Roquet was 26th in 18:50.9 while Lesley Roquet was close behind in 29th in the time of 18:53.9.
“Another awesome performance by Bailey,” Comfort said. “Second place in 16:16 on this course is a pretty good performance. She gets better each race. We had some up-and-down performances tonight. Bailey, Kelsey and Lesley were solid, but our four to seven runners had off nights, that happens in running, but we need to bounce back now and make some more strides forward.
“I just don't think we were ready to run, or were a little intimidated or something. The spark didn’t seem to be there.”
Meghan Toubekis had the top finish for the junior varsity girls as she had a time of 20:43.7 to come in 17th overalll. Placing right behind her was Natalie Whitis, who was 18th in 20:54.0.
“The JV girls had some good races,” Comfort said. “Meghan had a strong race and may be rounding into racing shape. As a team, we need to be much tougher and need to run through the finish, that was lacking tonight.”
The Oskaloosa Middle School also competed Tuesday night with Colton Berg and Sienna DeJong collecting top-10 finishes.
Berg was second in 10:03.0 while DeJong finished third in the time of 10:33.0.
“This is a much tougher course and a little longer than last week,” Comfott said. “We have made some good progress though. Colton and Sienna both ran really well as expected. Addison Vandewall had a nice race as well. We continue to work on getting stronger. They are practicing hard and learning how to run distance. Some have had experience and some are just learning. We get a little better each day. There is a lot of talent in this group and we are trying to help them to see that.”
Next action for the Indians will be Sept. 18 at the Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont Invitational.
Oskaloosa Invitational
At Edmundson Park
Girls
Varsity
Team standings — 1. Williamsburg 43, 2. Newton 79, 3. Ottumwa 94, 4. Fairfield 107, 5. Albia 128, 6. Oskaloosa 151, 7. Knoxville 180, 8. Centerville 186, 9. Eddyville-Blakeburg-Fremont 223, 10. Chariton 281.
Oskaloosa — 2. Bailey Blythe 16:16.4, 26. Kelsey Roquet 18:50.6, 29. Lesley Roquet 18:52.9, 48. Brey Hill 20:29.7, 52. Melanie Harvey 20:43.8. 53. Riley Berg 20:49.1, 56. Julia Coniglio 20:58.8.
Junior Varsity
Oskaloosa — 17. Meghan Toubekis 20:43.7, 18. Natalie Whitis 20:54.0, 32. Lauren Gorski 22:20.8, 34. Angela Hyland 22:54.0, 39. Brooke Beers 23:06.1, 46. Kenzie Gunter 24:18.
Middle School
Oskaloosa — 3. Sienna DeJong 10:33, 12. Melissa Moorman 11:53, 22. Lexi Randau 12:38, 27. Anna Jones 12:49, 30. Allie Hafner 13:01, 41. Kamryn Beers 13:55, 55. Gillian Gross 14:25, 56. Claire Fiechtner 14:27, Marta Iverson 17:12, Emily Grahek 18:52.
Boys
Varsity
Team standings — 1. Newton 53, 2. Williamsburg 66, 3. Oskaloosa 102, 4. Knoxville 128, 5. Ottumwa 139, 6. Albia 142, 7. Fairfield 143, 8. Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont 160, 9. Pella Christian 210, 10. Centerville 282, 11. Chariton 338.
Oskaloosa — 3, Skylar DeJong 17:23.1, 9. Spencer DeJong 18:12.9, 16. Kamron VanHulzen 18:57.8, 35. Caleb Fisher 19:56.9, 39. Logan Gross 20:02.6, 50. Gerrit VanMaanen 20:40.0, 64. Johannes Hartman 21:45.4.
Junior Varsity
Oskaloosa — 8. Graeme Kuba 21:09.3, 25. Jared Buckallew 21:58.5, 34. Tiki Anderson 23:06.1, 49. Devion Versendaal 25:52.8.
Middle School
Oskaloosa — 2. Colton Berg 10:03.0, 19. Addison Vandewall 11:22.0, 26. Spencer Nelson 11:37.0, 37. Nickolas Schaffner 12:22.0, 38. Jack Miller 12:25.0, 39. Aaron Bowie 12:27.0, 41. Garrett Gilliland 12:39.0, 57. Jacob Spears 13:15, 82. Jordan Diggins 14:39.0.
