Cross Country Runs First Meet at Boone Central
By Abbie Cone
On Friday, September 8, the Pierce High cross country team made the trek to Albion to compete in their first meet of the season.
“For the first meet of the year the results were about what I expected,” head coach Gary Shada comments. “We had a number of runners running their first high school cross country meet and getting that first one out of the way is always tough. Most everyone's performance was about on par with what was done over the summer and what I've seen thus far in practice. There were a few pleasant surprises and now we just have to focus on our next meet and work hard between now and then.”
For individual results, Kendall Shada ran a 17:14 and placed sixth overall on the boys’ side. Kyle Abler took 21st with a time of 18:13. Maxwell Weber ran a time of 20:01, and right behind him was Blaine Anson, finishing at 20:02.
On the girls’ side, Aylla Weeder placed 12th with a time of 22:34, and Taydym Koch earned 33rd with a time of 23:35. Bailee Thelen finished in 25:22 and placed 51st. Isabelle Kuehler finished with a time of 26:02, and following her was Amelia Ahlers, finishing in 26:10. Lainey Jensen ran a time of 28:15.
An added change this year was to run the meet in the morning versus the normal afternoon races where the heat can be a factor. Friday’s morning temperatures were in the mid-60s.
“As a team it wasn’t the greatest showing, as some of us didn’t take as much advantage of the weather as we should have,” Kendall Shada says. But, bringing home hardware individually is always good. We know what we’re going to have to do in practice to be at the top as a team by pushing ourselves harder in workouts.”
