Prep cross-country: Lady Dees head of the class at Pekin Grade Races
Sep. 29—FAIRFIELD — There may only be one freshman on the roster of the Albia girls cross-country team.
Makenna Montgomery, however, proved to be at the head of the class on Saturday during the annual Pekin Grade Races.
In fact, Montgomery was at the head of all classes posting the top time of any varsity girls runner at Waterworks Park crossing the finish line in 19:31.95, helping the fourth-ranked (2A) Lady Dees finish off another winning day. When it was all said and done, Albia 21 finished with total team points and three of the five team trophies given to the winning school in each grade 7-12 at the uniquely formatted meet.
"It was fun. It was good," Montgomery said. "It's awesome running with all these girls. We just do our best and see what it is."
The Lady Dees have now won team titles in all six meets they have competed in this season, pushing their unofficial record to 63-0 after finishing 27 points overall ahead of Pekin and 40 points ahead of South Central Conference rival Davis County. Albia brought home the team trophies for having the top group of senior, junior and sophomore female runners on Saturday.
"That's all silly stuff to me," Albia head cross-country coach Todd Ratliff said when talking about the team's 'unbeaten' record. "Davis County ran really well. Pekin ran well. We're excited that we were able to come over here and have a good showing ourselves."
Albia was able to edge Davis County by a slim four-point margin in boys competition for the overall team title as the South Central Conference rivals combined to produce eight of the top 10 individual times in the meet. Experience carried the Blue Demons with Christopher McDonald (18:52.75) and John Pistek (18:58.28) beating Davis County teammates Drake Hamm (19:26.38) and Daniel Oliver (19:53.24) to the finish line in the senior boys race.
"If it wasn't for John pushing me to the finish line, I probably would have died out there. He helped me out a lot," McDonald said. "This is my first year running cross-country. It definitely pushed me to first place in my first year."
Davis County went home with plenty of hardware as the Mustang freshman, sophomore and junior boys each won team titles to go along with seventh, eighth and ninth-grade team titles for the Davis County girls. Mark Shirley posted the top time for the Davis County boys, finishing second in the junior boys' race to Albia's Ethan Stalzer in a time of 18:32.76 edging Mustang junior teammate Sutton Shively for the fourth-fastest overall time among the varsity high school boys by 6.76 seconds.
"We have a really young team this year, so we walk into every meet with certain expectations that are different from previous years," Davis County head cross-country coach Josh Husted said. "It's a young, enthusiastic group. It was nice to split them up into the different grade races and let them shine racing kids in their own age group."
Like McDonald, Pekin senior Brooke Miller earned her first championship medal on Saturday highlighting her first and only year as a high school cross-country runner. Miller won the senior girls race in 22:05.08, over two minutes ahead of Albia's Lexie Jones.
"I didn't really run the time I wanted, but we just ran on Thursday (at Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont)," Miller said. "It feels good. It's probably the only race I'll win this season."
Avery Major earned a first-place medal for the Albia girls, passing Pekin's Lauren Steigleder on the second and final lap at Waterworks Park before pulling away to win the girls junior race in 20:11.29. Steigleder finished second in 20:30.48 while Davis County's Karston Nebel finished third in 21:36.85.
"It took a long time to track down Lauren. Once I got in front, I knew I needed to go if I was going to stay in front," Major said. "I was just trying to finish as hard as I could and stay out in front as long as I could."
Pekin's big winner on Saturday was Brady McWhirter. The top sophomore runner broke out new spikes and a pair of gloves for the chilly, overcast morning ultimately posting the fastest time among all varsity boys in the grade races crossing the finish line in 16:46.22.
"I've never really worn gloves out there, but I like having my hands warm when I'm out there running," McWhirter said. "I like running warm. I don't like running cold. I always change out my spikes and every race. With as damp as it was out there, I think that helped gain and keep momentum out on the course."
Both the Davis County girls and boys were back on the course Tuesday at the Clarke Invitational. Nebel finished sixth for the Davis County girls in 23:19.59, leading the Mustangs to a runner-up finish with 69 points while Mark Shirley's 11th-place run of 19:39.48 led the Mustang boys to a fourth-place finish as a team with 86 points.
— Scott Jackson can be reached at sjackson@ottumwacourier.com. Follow him on Twitter@CourierScott.
