Meyer claims NCC title; Maas runner-up with new PR

CLEAR LAKE – The first time Ellie Meyer of Iowa Falls-Alden/AGWSR and the Bulldogs’ Lydia Maas raced, they finished one-two, but on Tuesday, Oct. 13, this meant a little bit more to the both of them.

Meyer claimed the North Central Conference girls’ varsity title at Clear Lake’s Veterans Memorial Golf Course with a personal best of 18 minutes, 17.57 seconds and Maas also broke 19 minutes by going 18:56.70 as runner-up.

“It felt fast,” Meyer said of her race. “This is a nice course, so I thought I was flying. My splits were 5:45 and 11:45, so I knew I was flying and it felt really, really good. The downhills were really, really fast.”

In the first race of the 2020 season, Meyer finished nearly two minutes ahead of Maas.

“I think it means a lot (to close the gap),” Maas said of the 39 second difference this time. “It’s something that I can really base on how I’ve progressed this season. I can base that off of the gap time. Because there are some girls that you are just not going to beat. There are some girls who are just better and so I think that sometimes when I am setting goals, it isn’t always to win, sometimes it is to be within a certain gap and that gap getting smaller definitely means a lot.”

Maas admitted that going in, she definitely had in mind that she wanted to win, but had other goals in mind, too.

“I knew that Ellie would be really strong competition, so my big goal was to break 19,” Maas said. “I really wanted that, and so I decided that if I needed to beat Ellie to do that, that is what I would try to do. If I didn’t (beat her) then I would lean back on that time goal.”

The course was much to Meyer’s liking.

“There were some slight hills, nothing to put it in the way,” Meyer said, “so it was really nice.”

The Cadets were runners-up in the team race despite landing three in the top-10 with Teah Miller right behind Maas and Abby Harding seventh. But Fort Dodge St. Edmond had four top-10 finishes and then rounded out its scoring at 15th to win, 37-55.

Maas, meanwhile, is gearing up for the state qualifying meet where she will not only see Meyer, but some tougher competition.

“I’m really excited for next week,” Maas said. “I’m excited to run with some girls who are competitive with me and kind of get into more racing experience, so I think the goal is to be top-five. I want to qualify for state really bad. I think just keep trying to get lower times and see what I can do. I’m really excited.”

And she will go into it with her first individual ranking of the season. The Iowa High School Athletic Track Coaches rated her 22nd in Class 3A for the first time, something that had her motivated, as well.

“I was really excited,” Maas said when she learned of the status. “Rankings are hard because I know there are a lot of factors that go into it. But, it was always a goal in the back of my head and I thought it would be really cool. The fact that I did get ranked, is really exciting.”

The Bulldog boys team finished sixth out of eight teams, led by Jace Spurgeon’s top-20 finish in 18:25.37, good for 19th overall. Jack Showalter came in four places back and coach Traci Moorehead’s team was rounded out by Zayden Erdman (32), Brandon Hisler (37), Marshal Rust (49).\

The Bulldogs scored 160 points.

Humboldt won the boys’ team title with 32 points, paced by the individual title and runner-up finish by the Wildcats’ Quinton Orr and Eric Wittrock.

IF-A/AGWSR boys finished seventh in team scoring.

The Bulldogs’ Miles Rust easily won the middle school individual title, clocking in for the two-mile course in 11:10.91. As a team, they were edged by Clear Lake 70-71 for the team title. Lily Hambly finished top-10 among middle school girls, fifth in 14:11.43.

2020 NCC Meet

Varsity Girls Team Scoring

1. Fort Dodge St. Edmond 37; 2. Iowa Falls-Alden/AGWSR 55; 3. Algona 71; 4. Humboldt 87; 5. Webster City 124; 6. Clear Lake 156.

Iowa Falls-Alden/AGWSR (55) – 1. Ellie Meyer 18:17.57; 3. Teah Miller 20:15.78; 7. Abby Harding 20:51.35; 22. Kate Pfaltzgraff 23:15.06; 28. Kyla Oppold 24:00.89; 31. Trinity Rotgers 24:48.63; 42. Zoey Carter 26:32.46.

Hampton-Dumont (no team score) – 2. Lydia Maas 18:56.70; 44. Anne Henrichs 27:47.73; 45. Kimberly Guillen 28:24.87; 47. Avery Hanson 29:20.50.

Middle school results– 5. Lily Hambly 14:11.13; 31. Jaliyah Ivey 17:53.25.

Varsity Boys Team Scoring

1.     Humboldt 32; 2. Clear Lake 62; 3. Webster City 75; 4. Fort Dodge St. Edmond 111; 5. Algona 138; 6. Hampton-Dumont 160; 7. Iowa Falls-Alden 161; 8. Clarion-Goldfield-Dows 164.

Hampton-Dumont (160) – 19. Jace Spurgeon 18:25.37; 23. Jack Showalter 18:46.98; 32. Zayden Erdman 19:13.56; 37. Brandon Hisler 19:27.13; 49. Marshal Rust 20:39.47; 50. Andyn Showalter 20:40.71; 52. Eli Fink 20:44.86.

Iowa Falls-Alden/AGWSR (161)– 25. Jacob Michaelson 18:48.75; 28. Jase Beaubien 18:55.17; 38. Gavin Stalzer 19:29.19; 40. Jaden Bartlett 19:30.64; 51. Guillermo Morales 20:44.82; 56. Derek Blackburn 22:38.00.

JV Boys Results

H-D (no team score)– 26. Noah Shaver 22:44.10; 28. Jonathan Simons 23:01.52; 46. Tam Hindin 26:16.77.

Middle School Team Scoring

1. Clear Lake 70; 2. Hampton-Dumont 71; 3. Algona 84; 4. Humboldt 95; 5. Clarion-Goldfield-Dows 100; 6. Fort Dodge St. Edmond 136; 7. Webster City 154; 8. Riverbend 174.

Hampton-Dumont (71) – 1. Miles Rust 11:10.91; 3. Peyton Kofoot 12:21.47; 9. Isaac Vosburg 13:06.33; 25. Isaac Sauke 15:06.62; 33. Jacob Cady 16:23.84; 39. Liam Murray 17:10.79.