The cross country season will start for most teams in Iowa Thursday. Several local schools will meet at Maynes Grove for the annual IFA/AGWSR Invitational, including Aplington-Parkersburg, Belmond-Klemme, Dike-New Hartford, Hampton-Dumont-CAL, South Hardin, and the hosts.
AP coach Jonna Junker says her team is highly anticipating the season opener with a larger roster than some previous years.
“We’ve got a big group of kids this year, which is great to see,” Junker says. “7th through 12th grade practice all together. So we have 46 kids out this year, which is about a 10-member jump up from last year. So that’s really awesome. And yeah, we’re just ready to get the season rolling. The kids have been working really hard, and it’s just a fun group.”
Among AP’s standout boys runners will be sophomore Trevan Thomas, who competed near the end of last season after sustaining an injury that ended his participation in football. Junker says Thomas and others such as Ty Luhring and Evan Palmer will be the leaders of a revamped boys team. Last season, they didn’t have enough participants to register team scores.
“We had Trevan Thomas last year for a couple meets after he got injured in football, and he decided to join us again for a full season this year. So I’m excited for him, and he put in a lot of miles over the summer and is running really well in practices. So I’m really excited for Trevan. Ty Luhring decided to join the cross country team for his senior year, and is keeping right up there with Trevan in practices. And it’ll be fun because last year we weren’t able to score a boys team, so it’ll be fun this year.”
The meet is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m.
Jonna Junker interview:
