Comet seventh-grader Meghan Korbel one of final NEIC XC champions; Williams, Graeser and Kowalski All-NEIC

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

DECORAH — Meghan Korbel knows enough about history to realize she has come to be a part of it.

The Charles City seventh-grader won the Girls Middle School 3,200 during Tuesday’s Northeast Iowa Conference Cross Country Meet held at Luther College. As she has for most of her debut middle school XC season, Korbel was a convincing victor whose time of 2 minutes, 57 seconds clocked in nearly 20 seconds ahead of runner-up Hattie Sauer of Decorah, which had the next four runners in to win the meet with 20 team points.

Charles City Middle School’s girls placed third in the four-team field.

Already dominant as a seventh-grader, Korbel will likely win more races contingent on continuing her XC career. But after winning her first NEIC title, Korbel will not win another as the conference is due to disband after the current school/activities year.

“I was aware that this was going to be the last (NEIC) race,” Korbel said. “I wanted to win it so, yeah, I was a little nervous before the race.”

For most middle school runners, conference meets often serve as season finales. But a few ambitious and elite MS runners compete at non-school-sanctioned state meets, like the Washburn Classic this Saturday (Oct. 19) at Ankeny Centennial.

“I plan to run at the state meet for the first time,” Korbel said.

As for getting as many All-NEIC honors as possible before the deadline, Charles City senior Nick Williams was able to shake off an illness bug that forced him to withdraw from last week’s Dike-New Hartford Invitational to earn his fourth conference medal with a fifth-place 5K time of 16:56 in the Boys Varsity race.

Comet senior Xander Graeser, who set a personal-record while breaking into the Comet Top 50 Male 5K times at the said DNH Invite, earned his third All-NEIC medal with a ninth-place time of 17:03.

Both Comet seniors will be vying for their fourth state qualifying-berth during next Wednesday’s (Oct. 23) Class 3A State-Qualifier at Wartburg College.

Charles City boasted a third All-NEIC runner with junior Jackson Kowalski placing 14th with a time of 18:15.

Seniors Jordin Ritter (22nd, 19:19) and Carter Haberkorn (24th, 19:25) rounded out Charles City’s third-place total of 64 team points.

Decorah placed first (20) ahead of runner-up Waukon (45) and four-place New Hampton (89).

Crestwood, which was paced by Boys Varsity champion, senior Nathan Ahern (16:04), didn’t field a complete team.

With 32 team points, Decorah also won the Girls Varsity race ahead of runner-up Waukon (45), paced by freshman first-place finisher Miriam Downing (20:03), Crestwood (55), New Hampton (78) and Charles City (115).

At the conclusion of the NEIC high school races, it took a while for race officials to sort out individual placings as varsity and junior varsity ran together.

The likely source of the conundrum were the junior varsity runners placing ahead of their varsity small-school counterparts.

This was the case with Charles City sophomore Megan Babcock, who registered as a junior varsity runner and went on to achieve a personal-record time of 23:12 — a 44-second improvement over her PR time she set last week at DHH.

Had Babcock run as a varsity competitor, she would have placed just outside the Top 20.

Charles City freshman Kinley Roths, also running as a junior varsity, had the next best 5K time for the Comet girls with a PR time of 25:01.

In the Boys Middle School race, Decorah — paced by winner Lucas Fankhauser (12:21) — took team honors with 20 points, followed by Waukon (43), Charles City (68) and New Hampton (84).

Charles City eighth-grader Benjamin Tracey finished just outside All-NEIC honors with a 16th-place time of 13:43.

Northeast Iowa Conference Cross Country Meet

Oct. 15

AT LUTHER COLLEGE

Girls Middle School 2-Mile

TEAM SCORES — 1. Decorah 20, 2. Waukon 45, 3. Charles City 56, 4. New Hampton 89.

TOP 15 ALL-NEIC — 1. Meghan Korbel (CC) 12:57, 2. Hattie Sauer (D) 13:16, 3. Sophia Hammel (D) 13:34, 4. Vienna Schissel (D) 13:37, 5. Ruth Kueny (D) 14:05, 6. Anya Volkmann (D) 14:10, 7. Ali Melcher (W) 14:19, 8, Jaclyn Cummings (C) 14:20, 9. Leah Peake (W) 14:21, 10. Jorgan Lee-Juve (D) 14:50, 11. Hailey Cook (W) 14:57, 12. Laira Davis (W) 15:02, 13. Audrey Remington (D) 15:05, 14. Iris Wadsworth (D) 15:09, 15. Sofia Hageman (D) 15:13.

CHARLES CITY — 1. Korbel, 21. Jersey Dizon 15:51, 23. Jacqueline Mayhew 15:55, 31. Elyse Mason 17:12, 33. Ariana Noble 17:45.

Boys Middle School 2-MIle

TEAM SCORES — 1. Decorah 15, 2. Waukon 43, 3. Charles City 68, 4. New Hampton 84.

TOP 15 ALL-NEIC — 1. Lucas Fankhauser (D) 12:21, 2. Quinn Peterson (D) 12:29, 3. Leonard Nimrod (D) 12:30, 4. Kalin Harman (D) 12:34, 5. Edison Fullhart (D) 12:43, 6. Robert Davis (D) 12:46, 7. James Downing (W) 12:48, 8. Seth Drtina (C) 12:57, 9. Drake Casterton (D) 13:02, 10. Cole Kelly (W) 13:16, 11. Colton Bartelt (D) 13:24, 12. Matthew Lyons (W) 13:30, 13. Simon Potvin (D) 13:33, 14. Brecklin Dodd (D) 13:37, 15. Nathaniel Crose (D) 13:40.

CHARLES CITY — 16. Benjamin Tracey 13:43, 19. Logan Perez Factor 14:01, 29. Sam Northrop 15:22, 30. Carter Mack 15:28, 34. Logan Boehmer 15:47.

Girls Varsity 5K

TEAM SCORES — 1. Decorah 32, 2. Waukon 45, 3. Crestwood 55, 4. New Hampton 78, 5. Charles City 115.

TOP 15 ALL-NEIC — 1. Miriam Downing (W) 20:03, 2. Olivia Volkmann (D) 20:14, 3. Laney Peter (C) 20:16, 4. Sophie Glaser (NH) 20:33, 5. Courtney Brinlee (D) 20:38, 6. Christopher Riley (D) 21:02, 7. Reegan Benzing (W) 21:03, 8. Raelyn Newhouse (D) 21:07, 9. Emma O’Neill (W) 21:19, 10. Jaylee Vobr (C) 21:24, 11. Leah Garcia-Prats (D) 21:27, 12. Elle Wilkins (W) 21:46.01, 13. Lexus Dohlman (C) 21:46.13, 14. Amelia Wadsworth (D) 21:50, 15. Ava Daley (C) 21:55.

CHARLES CITY — 27. Athena Dittmer 25:06, 28. Fiona Pittman 26:58, 31. Isabella Fisher 27:54, 32. Paige Pickar 28:02, 33. Avril Kraft 28:09.

Boys Varsity 5K

TEAM SCORES — 1. Decorah 26, 2. Waukon 52, 3. Charles City 64, 4. Crestwood 84, 5. New Hampton 99.

TOP 15 ALL-NEIC — 1. Nathan Ahern (C) 16:04.25, 2. Grant Zilka (D) 16:04.34, 3. Garrett See (D) 16:04.42, 4. Isaac Reisinger (W) 16:50, 5. Nick Williams (CC) 16:56, 6. Mitchell Stemper (D) 17:00, 7. D’Mitry Lesser (D) 17:01.24, 8. Davis Coppola (D) 17:01.69, 9. Xander Graeser (CC) 17:03, 10. Landyn Hook (D) 17:10, 11. Brandon Leppert (W) 17:21, 12. Caleb Helgerson (W) 17:32, 13. Oak Pasche (D) 17:42, 14. Jackson Kowalski (CC) 18:15, 15. Garner Lange (W) 18:20.

CHARLES CITY — 5. Williams, 9. Graeser, 14. Kowalski, 22. Jordin Ritter 19:19, 24. Carter Haberkorn 19:25.