Balanced Jaguars earn TLC crown
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POCAHONTAS – Behind five Top-16 finishers, the Southeast Valley boys took home the Twin Lakes Conference cross country championship here Thursday for the fifth time in school history.
The Jaguars finished with 55 points, 16 better than runner-up Sioux Central. Manson Northwest Webster was third, followed by Newell-Fonda, Atla-Aurelia, Emmetsburg, East Sac County and South Central Calhoun.
Lucas Wernimont of Sioux Central was the race winner in 16:28. Emmetsburg's Ben Cox finished second and Manson Northwest Webster freshman Levi Ollinger was third.
For Southeast Valley, Owen Nuss placed sixth overall in 17:41. Teammate August Akins gave them a second Top-10 finisher by crosssing 10th in 18:11.
Griffin Vote was 13th, Kasen Loeffler 14th and Landon Vote 16th for the Jags.
"I'm just really proud of all our runners. It wasn't the greatest of conditions to run in and I felt everybody did a great job blocking that out and competing," SV head coach Travis Nuss said. "Our strength this year has definitely been our Top 5-to-7 runners running as a pack, and the small spread between them.
"We don't need that top guy or two like many teams, but the fact we can get five, six and sometimes seven guys ahead of the other four and five runners is what has made this team so special."
Nuss was the lone senior runner for the Jaguars to race. Landon Vote is a junior, Akins and Loeffler are sophomores, and Griffin Vote is a freshman. Grant Peterson was 23rd and Wyatt Blair 26th for the Jags.
"It's been extra special to win this, with Owen as a senior on this team and seeing him finally get the breakout race he's been trying for," said Nuss, Owen’s father. "He really stepped up into that leadership role this year as the lone senior boy and took this team under his wing. Seeing him finally break 18 minutes was the icing on the cake.
"Now, hopefully we can duplicate these results and improve on them next Thursday at the state qualifying meet."
The Cougars saw three Top-20 performers, led by Ollinger and juniors Kyle Widlund and Logan Meyer. Widlund was fifth in 17:33, while Meyer placed 19th. David Nelson took 25th, Thomas Lundberg 27th and Rowan Poutre 28th.
Nelson, Lundberg and Poutre are also juniors for Manson Northwest Webster.
Easton Zinnel crossed eighth for West Bend-Mallard, with the freshman posting a time of 17:58. Bryson Kampen was 42nd for the Wolverines.
Newell-Fonda's Austin Barber was 11th, Jack Olsen 17th, Sawyer Olsen 20th, Brock White 21st and Gus Lockrem 31st.
Along with a runner-up finish by Cox – a sophomore – Emmetsburg's Elijah Cox was 18th. Miles Rouse finished 37th, Asher Woodford was 57th and Inaki Aguilar 67th. Lucas Aragon of East Sac County placed seventh in 17:48, with teammates Kenton Ackerman 47th, Emmett Hemer 51st, Damian Riedell 53rd and Evan Johnston 65th.
Declan Spencer paced South Central Calhoun, as the sophomore was fourth in 17:33. Max Halbur finished 36th, Brent Thielen was 49th, Reuben Potts 72nd and Isaiah Batten 77th.