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JV 1st in MVC divisional
by Gregory R. Norfleet · Sports · October 19, 2017
City High’s boys cross country team heads into Thursday’s divisional meet coming off a sixth-place finish at the varsity level, a first-place finish on junior varsity and a third-place finish on the freshman-sophomore level on Oct. 12.
West Branch High School runners contributed to the junior varsity race, with a couple coming close or beating personal record times.
The Bear-Hawk team competed at in the Mississippi Valley Conference Divisional race at Cedar Rapids’ Noelridge Park.
Head Coach Jayme Skay said everyone on the team ran and junior varsity “dominated” its division, just like it had at the Super Meet on Oct. 5.
“(That) shows the strength in our underclassmen,” he said, noting that includes West Branch senior Will Martin and junior Keegan Sotelo.
Martin finished 45th overall and 15th for City High with a time of 19:17, just three seconds off his personal record time, which he set a year ago at the same race. Sotelo finished 61st overall and 20th among City High runners with 20:13, just two seconds off of his time last year in the divisional race.
Varsity results (56 runners): 1. Cedar Rapids-Prairie 41, 2. Dubuque-Hempstead 58, 3. Cedar Rapids-Kennedy 111, 4. Cedar Falls 117, 5. Cedar Rapids-Washington 117, 6. City High 127, 7. Dubuque Senior 131
Junior varsity results (103 runners): 1. City High 25, 2. Cedar Rapids-Prairie 47, 3. Dubuque-Hempstead 79, 4. Cedar Falls 105, 5. Dubuque Senior 127, 6. Cedar Rapids-Washington 180, 7. Cedar Rapids-Kennedy (INC)
Fresh-soph results (176 runners): 1. Cedar Rapids-Kennedy 35; 2. Cedar Rapids-Prairie 59, 3. City High 80, 4. Dubuque-Hempstead 90, 5. Cedar Falls 100, 6. Dubuque Senior 132, 7. Cedar Rapids-Washington 192.
In the fresh-soph race, sophomore Barrett Walsh finished 73rd overall and 16th for City High with 19:23. This beat his personal record time by a significant 22 seconds and beat his 2016 time by 30 seconds. Sophomore Jonathan Wargo finished 143rd overall and 35th for City High with 21:39; the first-year racer beat his personal record by an impressive 47 seconds.
The team gathered Oct. 10 for its end-of-season banquet, and Skay said he was impressed by how senior and four-year competitor Will Martin fought through heel pain to race.
“He works so hard, and he’s been battling that heel pain — we are not sure how it came about — but even with the pain, it was hard to get him to slow down because he was so determined to run,” the coach said.
Skay said Martin took turns riding a bike and racing to keep up his endurance.
“Even in the last meet, just like most of the season, he would do bikes and finishing so strong, and he almost hit his personal record at his last meet — that tells you what kind of kid he is,” he said.
The coach encourages cross country runners to practice in the off-season, and Martin did that as well as attend summer training camps.
“He made us very proud,” the coach said.
Had he not been injured, Martin likely would have qualified to race in the district meet this Thursday, Skay added.
West Branch senior John Muckler ran for about a month with City High before heading to Moldova for a 10-month language immersion program with the U.S. State Department. At the banquet, the team recognized him as one of its racers receiving All-Mississippi Valley Conference Academic Awards.
Varsity finishes the conference with a 61-29 record. Junior varsity is 68-8 and the fresh-soph team is 28-11.
Skay called City High’s 2017 season “unique,” in that a mix of injuries and absences did not allow the team to settle on seven consistent top runners. Instead, the coaches must decide between 12 racers battling for that honor.
“This week, we will be down one varsity guy and he’s one of our top three runners,” the coach said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us and we’re in contention. If we can run the (district) race the way we’ve been training, we’ve got a chance to be in the top three, and that’s what it takes to get to state.”
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