The Oskaloosa cross country teams were in action on a cold, rainy day at the Centerville Big Red Invitational.

Once again, Sara Dickinson led the way with another easy victory covering the 4K course in 14:25 with Brooke VanHouweling taking the runner-up spot with a personal-best time of 15:51. Jess Grahek, Lyric Morris and Paige Walter finished in 33rd, 35th and 40th places respectively.

The Indians finished with 111 points to finish in fifth place in the 8-team meet. Courtney Converse and Alisha Poncy also ran for the Indians.

“I thought that our girls ran really strong tonight,” Oskaloosa coach Keith Comfort said. “The cold, wet and windy conditions made for a tough running night, but I thought the girls were able to overcome the weather and run some very good times. I think all the girls ran season best times, or close to it. Our 3–7 runners all had breakthroughs tonight and I am really happy with that. We are slowly getting to the point that we can be competitive. We were just one point from fourth and eight points from third.”

The junior varsity girls also ran well with Dana VanRhenterghem leading the way with a 17th-place finish in a time of 19:44.

“Five of our JV runners ran season best times. Dana ran a strong race as did all the girls. All the girls looked strong and raced really hard. I was very happy with Amanda Stefaniks race as she ran a great time and raced really hard. She has shown consistent improvement all year,” Comfort said.

The varsity boys finished in seventh place in the 7-team field with a score of 152 points. Ryan McPherren was the top finisher with a 23rd-place time of 19:40. Isaiah Thompson ran 19:53 to finish in 26th place.

“Our times were not as fast as last week, but the boys race ended up being a little long due to a mixup,” Comfort said. “Shannon Koski, Bryan Kunz and Ryan Wells ran good races tonight. We were missing our No. 1 runner tonight due to illness, but the others ran well and raced pretty hard. Again, the conditions were not the best, but I thought the boys were able to overcome the weather. We’re still looking to run a complete race by everyone, and hopefully we can accomplish that at the conference meet next week. It seems every week one person or another is sick or hurt or has an off day.”

Jon Fash and Martin Hassel led the JV boys finishing in 9th and 10th place respectively with times of 20:15 and 20:18.

“The boys all raced hard and I continue to see improvement weekly from them. Times are not always a good indicator of effort, but I could see the effort tonight,” Comfort said.

The middle school teams also ran and did well.

The girls had four of the top 15 finishers with Sarandyn Curtis in 10th, Riley Berg in 12th, Stephanie Smith in 14th and Aubrey Netten in 15th.

“All the girls ran well and I was especially happy to see Aubrey run tonight,” Comfort said. “It was her first race of the year due to an illness and she looked strong and did a good job. Sarandyn, Riley and Stephanie have been very consistent for us all year. The girls have shown steady improvement all year as we get ready for the conference meet next week.”

The boys were led by Adam Genskow and Bryan Herr in 22nd and 28th places.

“I saw some real racing going on with our boys tonight and they are improving weekly,” Comfort said.