Sept. 9, 2006

Women third at Grinnell

GRINNELL- Central College's Adam Wolf (senior, Corning) finished second in a competitive men's field and the Dutch women finished third at the Les Duke Invitational cross country meet Saturday morning. The men's squad placed fourth out of 10 teams with 87 points. Wartburg won the men's title with 36 points while Grinnell College took second on its home course with 60. Wolf covered the 8,000 meter course in 26:05, 16 seconds behind first-place Drake Ballew from Grinnell.

"I thought Adam (Wolf) ran a great race," said coach Jeff Bovee. "He made a smart move in the third mile and really opened it up. It was exciting to see him run his style."

Brian Respeliers (senior, Council Bluffs, St. Albert HS) was the second Dutch runner across the line in 17th (26:59) followed closely by Joe Jefferson (senior, Decorah) in 19th (27:02). Jaron Byrum (sophomore, Mount Union, New London HS) and Brett Jones (senior, Knoxville) finished 24th and 25th in 27:32 and 27:35, respectively. Pierre Taylor (freshman, Oswego, Ill.) was 30th (28:03) and Brett Dietrich (junior, Williamsburg) finished 31st (28:16).

"It was a big boost having Joe (Jefferson) back," Bovee said. "He's running really strong right now and is in a great position to improve with some more intense training in the next few weeks. A big key for us to get better now is to close the gap between Adam (Wolf) and the rest of our pack."

Berry leads women -Meanwhile, Angie Berry (freshman, Norwalk) finished fifth overall (23:13) in her first 6,000 meter women's race.

"Angie ran an outstanding time for her first 6k," said Bovee. "All of the women that finished in front of her could be legitimate NCAA qualifiers."

The women's squad placed third out of 10 teams with 72 points, behind winner Grinnell (31) and runner-up Wartburg (54).
Amber Mayer (freshman, Essex, Shenandoah HS) was the next Dutch runner, finishing in seventh (24:00) with Jess Clark (sophomore, Port Byron, Ill., Riverdale HS) a few strides behind in 10th (24:05). Nicki Thomas (sophomore, Omaha, Neb., Millard North HS) was 24th (24:56), Amy Ledvina (freshman, Toledo, South Tama HS) was 26th (25:08), Jenni Hufford (freshman, Ankeny) was 27th (25:16) and LeAnne Townsend (senior, Perry) was 31st (25:35).

"This was Nicki's first race back, so right now I think we're just scratching the surface with her," said Bovee. "You couldn't go by the watch in this race. The ground was wet and slowed everyone down. We still had some great performances though."

The Dutch have a week off and will run Sept. 23 at the Roy Griak Invitational at St. Paul, Minn, among the largest cross country meets in the country.