The Boys and Girls JV cross country teams opened the season at Dallas Center-Grimes on September 3, 2019. Both JV teams battled other schools varsity teams. There were 10 different schools at the meet.

The Girls team placed 7th with a total of 143. Faith Nead ’22 placed 6th overall and lead the team with a time of 20:04. The next runner in for the girls was Abbie McClaren ’21. McClaren placed 31st with a time of 22:28. The next five runners in for the girls placed within the 31st spot and 39th. They were Vivian Chen ’21 (23:09), Lauryn Johannsen ’22 (23:14), Lexy Urban ’22 (23:40.0), Molly Lunn ’20 (23:40.9), and Abby Maitre ’21 (23:44).

The next meet on the schedule for the girls is on Saturday, September 7 at Pleasant Valley. This will be the varsity’s second meet of the year.

The Boys team placed 6th with a total of 152 in their first meet of the season. Matthew Kliegl ’20 placed 26th overall and was the first runner in from Johnston with a time of 18:16. After Kliegl the big pack rolled in. Joe Kerber was the second runner in with a time of 18:24, then Cooper Vercauturen ’23 with a time of (18:27), next was Noah Madison (18:31), then Alex Wear ’23 (18:34), then Michael Pfister ’22 (18:36), and finally Jake Wagner ’22 (18:50). Their spread was an amazing 26 seconds.

The next meet for the Boys is also on Saturday, September 7 at Pleasant Valley. This will be the first time the Varsity and to JV will compete this year. These races are bound to be fun to watch as many spots on Varsity are open this year since their team is so deep.