West Fork boys cross country returns to state after five-year hiatus

Published by admin on Wed, 10/30/2019 - 9:35am

The West Fork boys' cross country team, from far left, Cail Weaver, Jakob Washington, Josh Reiter, Noah Maske and Ren Heimer run in a pack at the start of the Class 1A state qualifying meet at Marshalltown on Thursday, Oct. 24. The Warhawks will return to state after a five-year absence. (Jake Ryder/Mid-America Publishing)

By:

Kristi Nixon

Regional Sports Editor

MARSHALLTOWN – It has been a minute.

West Fork’s boys’ cross country team ended its five-year state team drought with a runner-up finish at the state-qualifier in Marshalltown on Thursday, Oct. 24 in order to head to Kennedy Park in Fort Dodge on Saturday, Nov. 2.

The Warhawks had two top-15 finishes from Josh Reiter (eighth) and Jakob Washington (11) to help lead coach Mark Twedt’s team to state for the first time since 2014 when they finished state runners-up.

“It went as I expected,” Twedt said of his team’s performance, “but we need to be tighter (as a pack) at state. We are hoping for top-five and dreaming of top-three.”

Reiter ran to a time of 17 minutes, 30.5 seconds for his place while Jakob Washington came in 10 seconds later for the duo to also qualify as individuals. Ren Heimer (16) just missed the individual qualifying medal at 17:57.3.

Completing team scoring for the Warhawks were Noah Maske (20) and Trent Despenas (32). They will be joined by Cail Weaver and Colin Martinek.

That doesn’t mean West Fork has not had boys’ state qualifiers. In 2015 and 2016, Jake Hansen represented the Warhawks as an individual. The girls’ team also went in 2015.

West Fork sophomore Kacie Eisentrager will also be making the trip, finishing in the top-15 at No. 11 in 21:09.8 to make the cut for the first time, which she expressed was a goal she was striving for at last week’s conference meet. The Warhawk girls scored 287 points to finish at No. 10 overall out of 19 complete teams at the Marshalltown Community College course as Eisentrager was the only West Fork girls’ qualifier.

“I feel good for Kacie,” Twedt said. “She deserves it.”

Class 1A Marshalltown state qualifying results

Girls Team Scoring

1. Aplington-Parkersburg 59; 2. Hudson 66; 3. Madrid 124; 4. Collins-Maxwell 137; 5. Mason City Newman 156; 6. Lynnville-Sully 207*; 7. Montezuma 207*; 8. East Marshall 215; 9. Twin Cedars 216; 10. West Fork 287; 11. North Mahaska 301; 12. Baxter 347; 13. BGM 353; 14. Belle Plaine 383; 15. West Hancock 390; 16. Belmond-Klemme 413; 17. Colo-NESCO 427; 18. Woodward-Granger 489*; 19. Algona Garrigan 489*.

* denotes tiebreaker

West Fork (287)— 11. Kacie Eisentrager 21:09.8; 34. Mycah Weaver 22:42.5; 52. Jordan Swenson 23:27.5; 89. Ava Henricks 25:47.8; 101. Sydney Nuehring 26:21.6; 104. Delaney Christianson 26:46.6.; 116. Rachael Hubka 27:35.8.

Boys Team Scoring

1. Madrid 35; 2. West Fork 87; 3. Mason City Newman 116; 4. East Marshall 175; 5. Hudson 192; 6. BCLUW 195; 7. Woodward-Granger 238; 8. Aplington-Parkersburg 312*; 9. Collins-Maxwell 312*; 10. Woodward Academy 322; 11. Southeast Warren 325; 12. Colo-NESCO 337; 13. Belle Plaine 356; 14. Lynnville-Sully 383; 15. Belmond-Klemme 396; 16. GMG 436; 17. Algona Garrigan 446; 18. North Mahaska 464; 19. Baxter 468; 20. Meskwaki Settlement 522; 21. Melcher-Dallas 536; 22. Sigourney 540; 23. West Hancock 572; 24. Moravia 650.

* denotes tiebreaker

West Fork (87)— 8. Josh Reiter 17:30.5; 11. Jakob Washington 17:40.5; 16. Ren Heimer 17:57.3; 20. Noah Maske 18:21.1; 32. Trent Despenas 18:54.6; 50. Cail Weaver 19:22.2; 90. Colin Martinek 20:50.7.