Several local cross country teams will compete at Tuesday’s R.S. Belmond-Klemme Invitational. The hosts will be joined, among other teams, by Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, Hampton-Dumont-CAL, North Butler and West Fork.
Hampton-Dumont-CAL coach Traci Moorehead says it’ll be a familiar course with familiar competition.
“Belmond is always a nice course, it’s nice course and a nice meet to have,” Moorehead says. “It’s a little bit smaller teams. I mean, we were running against some Gilbert and Fort Dodge and Roland-Story, some really good cross country teams. So there are some North Iowa teams we’ll run against. Our freshmen even know the course, or at least will know of it, so just coming in with a little bit of determination and knowing the course is always helpful also.”
Moorehead says the girls team has put together some very close times, which should contribute well to team scores. Just 44 seconds separate the fastest and slowest times on the team, led by MacKenzy Valley’s season best 24:33.
“It’s such a good group of girls. They all work together and are pretty close. So like I said, they’ll just push each other. Having five times within 45 seconds is just simply amazing. And I think even they can push each other or they could keep their eyes up and know there’s my teammate, I’m not gonna lose her, that sort of thing. So just to push each other and maybe the order of what they come across will change. But the start of the season was bright and I can’t wait to see what we can do.”
In the boys race, North Butler’s Trager Pecha and Ezra Almelien will look to contend, entering with the fourth and fifth-best times among the field.
Varsity action will begin at 5:00 p.m. at Belmond Country Club.
