Story by The Latest Scoop Staff Writer Jaelyn Dvorak
The David City Cross Country team ran their sixth meet of the season last week at the Aquinas Invite on Thursday, October 3rd. This was the team’s “Pink Out” meet with the purpose to raise awareness about breast cancer and to show support to the women battling it, and the Scouts did not disappoint when they started their races wearing neon pink jerseys, socks, and headbands, among other accessories. Decked out almost completely in pink, the runners made their way through the David City Golf Course in the afternoon.
Throughout the season so far, the Scouts have created a rhythm and made consistent improvement. Leading the varsity team in the boys 5K race was freshman runner Manny Venegas, who finished with a time of 19:55 to land himself in 33rd place overall. Behind him was senior Stanley Allen in 42nd place, who earned a season personal best time of 20:20. Freshman Neil Zrust finished close behind in 46th out of the 79 total runners with a time of 20:37. Jace Rerucha finished with a time of 20:56 for 54th place, Neil Olson with a time of 21:08 for 62nd, and Keaton Busch with a time of 21:24 for 63rd. These six runners will be competing in the conference varsity race on October 10th.
The JV Scouts runners also had some great performances on Thursday. Sophomore runner Caelan Olson finished the JV race in 22:00 to place 26th out of 61 competitors. Junior and first-year runner Brittin Valentine finished in 28th with a personal record of 22:26, and freshman Trevin Jahde was close behind in 31st with a time of 22:36. When asked about his performance in the race, Jahde replied, “I think the race went pretty well for me. It was a fun experience because there were a lot of supportive people who showed up to watch us compete.”
His feelings about the support shown were shared with the other runners, including freshman girls’ varsity runner Aaliyah Huerta-Cruz. “Something special about each of our cross country meets is the support we get from our team’s parents,” Huerta-Cruz states. “Most of the parents always talk to and encourage everybody on the team before and after races, and cheer them on during the race even if they don’t know the runner very well. The support we get from them is always really awesome.”
With two runners unable to compete in this meet, the girls’ varsity team had a total of four girls running the 5K. The first to cross the finish line for the Scouts was sophomore runner Jaelyn Dvorak, who finished in 27th place with a time of 23:24. Aaliyah Huerta-Cruz finished in 33rd by running a time of 24:09, setting a new personal record by one second. Senior Benedetta Aroni finished in 65th with a time of 28:45, and sophomore Rylee Thoendel finished in 30:31. Senior Hannah Gangwish and sophomore Brylee Wiedel did not compete in the race due to sickness and a concussion, respectively.
In the girls’ JV 5K race, freshman Rilley Lowe secured a personal best time by an impressive 2 minutes and 32 seconds, finishing the race with a time of 27:53 to land her in 17th place. When asked about how she was able to make such an improvement, Lowe stated, “I motivated myself to keep going during the race by thinking about how my shoe was untied the entire time. I told myself that if I stopped, I was going to trip and fall flat on my face, so I have to just keep running.”
The team also had one middle schooler, 8th grader Michael Rebeiro, running the middle school boys’ 3K race. He finished with a consistent time of 12:05, placing 39th out of 101 runners. 8th grader John Benes was unable to run on Thursday.
However, the runners unable to compete at the Aquinas Invite will have another chance to run before district competitions begin. The David City Cross Country team will be back in action on Thursday, October 10th for conference hosted by Fillmore Central at the Geneva Golf Course.