Xavier Boys Cross Country

VanDraska wins top prize at Muscatine

MUSCATINE - Tysen VanDraska claimed first place at the Muscatine Invitational cross country meet Tuesday and nearly led Cedar Rapids Prairie to the title.

Pleasant Valley and Prairie both finished with 40 points for their top-five runners, but Pleasant Valley won the tiebreaker on the basis of its sixth-place finisher.

VanDraska won the 5K race in 15 minutes, 56.5 seconds. Karson Sommer of Pleasant Valley placed second in 16:02.

Prairie had four runners in the top seven. Jake Moore was fifth, Cam Steffens sixth and Chris Oehlert seventh.

Reagan Gorman of Cedar Rapids Washington finished fourth in the girls race in 18:59.2. Maddie Bach of Marion placed fifth in 19:14.2.

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Gorman, Culpepper run 2nd at Noelridge

Reagan Gorman of Washington and Steven Culpepper of Xavier placed second at the Eastern Iowa Classic cross country meet Thursday at Noelridge Park.

Mary Arch of Iowa City High won the girls 5K race in 18 minutes, 35 seconds, beating Gorman by 15 seconds. Hannah Fusselman of Kennedy finished fourth in 19:37 and Jenny Dickes of Xavier was fifth in 19:45.

Matthew Dodge of Iowa City High captured the boys 5K race in 16 minutes, 18 seconds, topping Culpepper by seven seconds.

Iowa City High won both team titles.

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VanDraska leads Prairie to title

Tysen VanDraska was sorely disappointed when he finished seventh at the Class 4A state cross country meet last fall.

"I kind of choked a little bit," he claimed Thursday.

He does not plan to let it happen again.

VanDraska captured top honors and led Cedar Rapids Prairie to the team championship Thursday at the annual Cedar Rapids Invitational at Noelridge Park.

VanDraska won the 5K outing in 16 minutes, 7.68 seconds, edging Brandon Cooley of Bettendorf by 1.5 seconds in a tight race throughout. Prairie ran away with the team championship with 31 points with Jake Moore finishing fourth, Chris Oehlert sixth and Cam Steffens seventh.

VanDraska may have been a little harsh on himself by claiming he "choked a little bit" at the state meet, but he's always set high standards for himself as a distance runner.

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Dickes, Culpepper pace Xavier runners

MANCHESTER - Jenny Dickes and Steven Culpepper led the Xavier Saints at the Class 3A district cross country meet in Manchester Thursday and qualified for the state meet in Fort Dodge Nov. 1.

Dickes finished fifth in the girls 4K race in 15 minutes, 11 seconds. Culpepper placed sixth in the boys 5K event in 16 minutes, 41 seconds.

The top three teams and top 10 individuals qualified for state. Xavier finished fifth in the team standings in both races.

CLASS 3A DISTRICT MEET
Hart Ridge Golf Course, Manchester

BOYS RESULTS

Team Standings

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