Sep. 28—Cross country

Oskaloosa/PC tackle tough Knoxville course

KNOXVILLE — Oskaloosa and Pella Christian both had their cross country teams racing at an always difficult Knoxville course on Tuesday as the Indians picked up a pair of top four finishes for their teams while PC sent their JV team with the girls taking sixth.

"We've struggled at this meet the last three years," Oskaloosa head coach Michael Comfort said. "It is a tough course but I felt in the past we haven't competed to our best abilities. I challenged the team to break that streak and they did that. This is a course where you typically won't run your best time, so I'm more concerned with how well we race tactically and compete against the other teams. This is the boys fourth top three finish of the season and the girls best finish of the season so far."

The girls would take the course first and Tierney Carter would grab another top 10 finish in ninth place at 22:05 to lead Oskaloosa. Following behind her was Josie Adam (12th, 22:37), Emmalee Well-Stout (25th, 23:52), Evelyn Adam (30th, 24:21) and Kimber Van Engelenhoven (47th, 27:03).

"The girls ran fearlessly by getting out hard and showed a lot of guts and determination to finish strong despite being really uncomfortable," Comfort said. "Emmalee stepped up for us with her best race of the season. Like the guys, this varsity team is inexperienced so I'm really impressed by their growth in each meet."

The Oskaloosa boys were led by a 10th place finish by Will Roach at 18:07 while Reid Luck (14th, 18:42), Reed Peterson (19th, 19:03), Blake Henry (23rd, 19:11) and Javion Reeves (25th, 19:23) rounded out the scoring.

"The boys got out well and were a little too spread out in the beginning, but they fought hard over the last half of the race to close their gaps and secure third place," Comfort said. "This is the first year on varsity for five of these runners, so I am impressed with their abilities to make adjustments during races and stick together for the good of the team."

Julia Shmalcs led the PC girls in 31st at 24:21 while Paxton Bouma paced the boys taking 32nd with a time of 20:02.

Oskaloosa and Pella Christian will both be back in action on Tuesday at Centerville at 5 p.m.

Girls standings

1. Indianola (25), 2. Winterset (84), 3. Ankeny Centennial (88), 4. Oskaloosa (123), 5. Knoxville (157), 6. Pella Christian (181), 7. Grinnell (184), 8. Des Moines Lincoln (193)

Boys standings

1. Winterset (22), 2. Grinnell (66), 3. Oskaloosa (100), 4. Marshalltown (100), 5. Des Moines Lincoln (114), 6. Knoxville (132)

Pella, PC race at Williamsburg

WILLIAMSBURG — Pella and Pella Christian both raced at the Williamsburg Invitational on Tuesday with the Dutch leaving with a team sweep while the girls and boys of PC took sixth and eighth, respectively.

The Lady Dutch took first with 53 points, 12 points ahead of second place Mount Vernon-Lisbon while the Eagles grabbed sixth with 174 points.

Pella was led by three top 10 finishers in Marissa Ferebee (2nd, 19:31), Jacie Trine (7th, 20:23) and Raegan Snieder (8th, 20:27). Lizzie Neumann (15th, 20:54) and Sophia Boonstra (21st, 21:23) made up the rest of Pella's top five.

PC was led by Bailey Vos' 20th place finish at 21:23 while Jaclyn Holmes (28th, 21:51), Joslyn Terpstra (34th, 22:12), Katy Roose (43rd, 22:48) and Amelia Boender (52nd, 23:46) also grabbed top five finishes for the Eagles.

The boys race saw Pella run away with it at 42 points compared to second place Mount Vernon-Lisbon at 91 points. Pella Christian finished eighth with 183 points.

Chase Lauman would race to the victory with a great time of 16:32 while Canaan Dunham wasn't fair behind in third at 16:37 and Nathan VanderWaal in seventh at 16:52. Noah Schuknecht (15th, 17:13) and Zack Neumann (16th, 17:16) also scored for the Dutch.

PC was led by another good run from Kaden Van Wyngarden, who took eighth at 16:56. Following behind him was Tysen DeVries (30th, 17:53), Ben Gosselink (31st, 17:57), Deacon Branderhorst (58th, 18:52) and Shaun Oosterheert (60th, 18:59).

Pella goes to Iowa Mennonite on Monday while Pella Christian will race at Centerville on Tuesday.

Volleyball

Grinnell defeats Pella 3-1 (26-24, 20-25, 26-24, 25-22)

GRINNELL — A match where all four sets were competitive and coming down to the wire saw Pella end up on the wrong side of too many of them as they fell to Grinnell on Tuesday.

For the Tigers, it was a historic win for them as they have had a tough time against the Lady Dutch. Tuesday marked Grinnell's first win over Pella since 2012 and just the second time since 2007 with the Lady Dutch leading the series 22-2 over that time span.

Anneka Stoltzfus led Pella with nine kills while Katie Scheckel tallied 27 assists. Kyli Hiemstra had 12 digs to lead the defense. Delia Smith's 14 kills led Grinnell while serve receive struggled for the Lady Dutch as they allowed 14 Tiger aces.

Pella (10-9, 2-3 LHC) will play again this weekend at the Urbandale Tournament on Saturday starting at 8 a.m.

Girls swimming

Oskaloosa swims at Newton

NEWTON — The Oskaloosa girls swimming team was in Newton on Tuesday for a double dual meet against Newton and Perry.

"We are just about half way through our season," Oskaloosa head coach Rachel Brown said. "With that we are at the peak of our work outs and the girls are definitely feeling that. They are sore and tired, but they did not let that stop them from coming out and competing last night."

The Indians continue to improve their times as several girls were within a few seconds of their season or lifetime bests as they work towards the postseason.

"We are going to work on competing all the way up until the end of a race as well as our turns and starts," Brown said. "I am looking forward to seeing what all the girls can accomplish once we fine tune our races!"

Oskaloosa hosts their home meet next Thursday.

Oskaloosa Results

Medley Relay: Bolibaugh, Snakenberg, Moore and Adams 3rd place

200 Freestyle: Callie Walters 5th and Emma Adams 6th

JV 50 Free: Kenzie Kanis 4th and Emma Whitt 5th

V 50 Freestyle: Callie Lindgren 5th and Cora Snakenberg 6th

100 Butterfly: Grace Moore 4th and Maddy Moorman 5th

JV 100 Freestyle: Emma Whitt 3rd

V 100 Freestyle: Emma Adams 5th and Callie Walters 6th

100 Backstroke: Vivian Bolibaugh 4th and Grace Moore 5th

100 Breaststroke: Kenzie Kanis 4th

400 Relay: Moore, Adams, Walters and Lindgren 3rd and Whitt, Kanis, Cheney and Moorman 4th