After racing in the Mississippi Valley Conference (MVC) Super Meet last week, the girls cross country team returned to compete at the MVC Mississippi Divisional at Seminole Valley Park in Cedar Rapids Oct. 17 for their final regular season meet. The Trojans had an outstanding showing, with the top three runners medaling and the team placing fourth overall. Leading the team, Kate Van Waning ’26 placed tenth with a time of 19:14. Shortly after, Kalli Titus ’25 took 16th in 20:21 and Susanna Olson ’27 took 21st in 20:37. Following Olson, rising star Mia Ahn ’28 placed 31st in 21:40 and Stella Hunter ’25 finished 39th in 22:44. Rounding out the score, Sadie Abbas ’27 and Savannah Mathias ’28 took 42nd and 48th in 23:01 and 24:16, respectively. Among the top five, the Trojans had a spread of 3:30 and an average time of 20:55, an improvement from their previous meets.
The JV team finished fourth overall, with a spread of 1:32 and an average time of 25:07 among the top five.
With three Trojans medaling, Titus was immensely prideful in their performance.
“I’m really happy we medaled. I think we came together as a team, and I’m super proud of myself and my teammates,” Titus said.
With friends, families and teammates cheering the Trojans on, Olson believes support is the key to success.
“I felt supported by my teammates and the viewers, and I hope that many people come to our state qualifying meet so we can feel the same vibe,” Olson said.
Van Waning has noticed an upward trend in performance, boosting morale before the state qualifying meet.
“All of us ran faster, which is good, and that’s what we want to see going into the championship season,” Van Waning said. “We started off the season not as good as we anticipated, but all that matters is that at the end of the season we’re running our best, and that’s what we’ve been doing. Building up our team again, making sure that we’re doing this as a team and doing it for our team, is really important.”
The Trojans will attempt to qualify for the state meet Oct. 23 at Southeast Polk High School in Des Moines.
