Warhawks soar to conference title

MASON CITY – All five of West Fork’s scoring boys’ cross country team members earned first or second team all-conference on the way to easily winning the Top of Iowa Conference meet held at the NIACC campus in Mason City.

Josh Reiter finished third to lead a trio in the top-10 and first team all-conference honors, which also included Jakob Washington, seventh, and Ren Heimer, ninth.

Second team all-conference honors were earned by Noah Maske (18) and Cail Weaver (27).

Reiter, who crossed the finish line in 17 minutes, 16 seconds, was only 12 seconds behind individual champion Riley Witt of St. Ansgar and seven back of Eagle Grove’s Jon Koester.

“At the beginning, I progressed to the front pack,” Reiter said. “I was pretty sure I wanted to get up a little bit further and to get up in the top-three and I was able to do that.

“I was able to get to the top-two, but the Eagle Grove kid came from behind that I wasn’t expecting and tried to get up past him, wasn’t able to, but finished strong.”

The Warhawks moved up last week from eighth to fourth in the Class 1A rankings heading into Thursday’s state qualifying meet at Marshalltown. That has Reiter excited.

“I believe we won,” Reiter said. “I’m pretty excited, it’s looking pretty good for districts. We’ve just got Madrid to really worry about. I’m very excited.”

For their efforts, coach Mark Twedt was voted Top of Iowa Conference boys’ coach of the year.

Ask Twedt, though, he feels his team needs to improve.

“I thought our boys ran fine, but we have to get better to reach our district and state goals,” Twedt said. “Step one went well, steps two and three, we will need to stay healthy and train incredibly sharp the next two weeks.

“We are on the right road, but if we don’t keep moving, we will be run over.”

The West Fork girls’ team finished seventh in the 13 complete-team field (five teams didn’t field a full squad). The Warhawk girls were led by sophomore Kacie Eisentrager, who finished fifth in 21:07.

Both time and finish were something Eisentrager said disappointed her, but left her something to aim for.

“Going into it, this wasn’t really the place that I wanted,” Eisentrager said. “I knew I would be in a fight to beat Nashua-Plainfield and didn’t work as hard as I could have or finish as well as I could.

“I was kind of hoping for third, it just didn’t happen, but it gives me something to strive for next year.”

Considering the Warhawks lost a runner to injury, Eisentrager said their finish was to be expected.

“I know it was really hard for us since one of our top-five girls got hurt, so it was hard to fill that spot,” Eisentrager said. “We only ended up running with six girls and that didn’t turn out very well.”

Eisentrager, too, has a shot if she runs well to qualify for the state meet at Marshalltown.

“I want to do better,” Eisentrager said. “I’m going to try to make it to state this year. I’m hoping that since I’ve been to Marshalltown I can use that, remember the hard spots and know where I need to be to keep on.”

Mycah Weaver finished second team all-conference by placing at No. 17 in 22:17.

“Kaci and Mycah ran well,” Twedt said. “The same things about the boys apply to them.”

Team scoring was rounded out by Jordan Swenson (32), Sydney Nuehring (63) and Delaney Christensen (69).

2019 Top of Iowa Conference Meet

Boys Team Scoring

1. West Fork 64; 2. Mason City Newman 98; 3. St. Ansgar 106; 4. Central Springs 112; 5. Eagle Grove 129; 6. Forest City 134; 7. North Butler 175; 8. Garner-Hayfield-Ventura 185; 9. Osage 221; 10. Algona Garrigan 277; 11. Lake Mills 282; 12. Nashua-Plainfield 316; 13. Belmond-Klemme 320; 14. West Hancock 385; 15. North Iowa 444.

West Fork (64) – 3. Josh Reiter 17:16; 7. Jakob Washington 17:44; 9. Ren Heimer 17:46; 27. Cail Weaver 18:39; 32. Trent Despenas 18:53; 73. Colin Martinek 21:02.

Girls Team Scoring

1. Mason City Newman 53; 2. Nashua-Plainfield 85; 3. Osage 95; 4. Eagle Grove 137; 5. Forest City 145; 6. St. Ansgar 158; 7. West Fork 185; 9. West Hancock 232; 10. Central Springs 232; 11. North Union 240; 12. Belmond-Klemme 272; 13. North Butler 299.

West Fork (185)– 4. Kacie Eisentrager 21:07; 17. Mycah Weaver 22:17; 32. Jordan Swenson 23:35; 63. Sydney Nuehring 26:10; 69. Delaney Christenson 26:36; 72. Ava Henricks 27:04.