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South Winn Invitational prepares Central runners for conference meet
Central Cross Country 2026
The Central cross country team includes (front, left to right) Katalina Dunlap, Blair Scherf, MacKenna Fisher, Harper Bennington, Hannah Friedlein, Emersyn Wiley, Payton Stannard; (middle) Lilly Becwar, Anya Whittle, Hadley Mueller, Tenley Meyer, Mya Gregerson, Claire Orr, Keagan Sylvester, Ayce Clark, Keegan Sperfslage; (back) Griffin Koehn, Oliver Holdsworth, Tyce Zittergruen, Breckon Holst, Cruz Healy, Cade Zittergruen, Jesse Polkinghorn, Lukas Friedlein, Mason Koehn and coach Mark Bauder. Not pictured are Corbyn Clark and Arthur Thiese. - photo by Audrey Posten

The Central cross country teams ran at the South Winneshiek Invitational on Oct. 6—their final competition before the Upper Iowa Conference meet this week.

Assistant coach Martha Bauder said it’s always a great meet to see runners compete among themselves for the top seven varsity spots for the upcoming conference and district meets.

“Both our boys and girls teams currently have some good battles going for those spots and we welcome that intensity, as it pushes them to continue working to compete for an entire race and get faster,” Bauder said.

The Warriors’ 96 points helped them edge Clayton Ridge by three points for third place in the boys race. With nine of the top 10 runners, Decorah easily won the meet with a score of 15, followed by host South Winn at 84.

Freshman Cade Zittergruen medaled for Central, earning 15th on a career-topping time of 18:29. So did teammate Jesse Polkinghorn in 18th, after completing the course in a season best 18:39. Tyce Zittergruen was the Warriors’ third runner in, with a time of 19:09 ranking him 29th, while Cruz Healy was 37th at 19:28—a course best for him. Oliver Holdsworth posted a time of 20:10 for 51st place.

Other Central results included Keagan Sylvester in 62nd place at 20:27, Lukas Friedlein 65th at 20:35, Breckon Holst 77th at 20:59, Keegan Sperfslage 93rd at 22:03, Arthur Thiese 97th at 22:34, Ayce Clark 120th at 25:03, Griffin Koehn 122nd at 25:59 and Bently Banks 126th at 26:41. Friedlein, Thiese and Banks all had career bests.

Blair Scherf continued to power Central in the girls varsity race, a time of 21:57 earning her 24th place. Hadley Mueller and MacKenna Fisher placed 56th and 57th with respective times of 23:32 and 23:34, followed by Payton Stannard in 63rd at 24:06. Harper Bennington posted a time of 25:30, finishing one spot ahead of teammate Anya Whittle, who finished the race in 25:39.

Emersyn Wiley crossed the line in 25:46, which was good for 82nd place, followed by Hannah Friedlein in 85th with a time of 25:59. Claire Orr was 97th at 27:25 and Tenley Meyer was 112th at 30:50. Both turned in the best times of their cross country careers.

Central placed sixth of seven teams with a score of 162. Like the boys, Decorah took the girls team title with a score of 35. Waukon was the runner-up at 68, MFL MarMac third at 80, South Winn fourth with 99 points and Saint Ansgar fifth at 143.

The Upper Iowa Conference meet is this Thursday, Oct. 15, at North Fayette Valley High School in West Union. The junior high boys and girls races will begin action at 4 p.m., followed by the varsity girls at 4:30 p.m. and the varsity boys at 5 p.m.

“We are going into the conference meet with the plan to try to repeat as small school division conference champions for both varsity and JV in both the boys and girls competitions,” Bauder said. “We will need everyone on our teams to be ready to compete with desire and determination, as there will be teams capable of making our goal difficult to reach.”