Heyne wins SICL XC meet

SEARSBORO – As he rounded the final corner and headed towards the finish line he could hear the rumblings about the pace he ran.

As he always does though, he ignored the rumblings. This meet, this run wasn’t about the time. It was about finishing first. 

That’s exactly what English Valleys senior Gage Heyne was able to do at the Oct. 15 South Iowa Cedar League Conference cross country meet. 

“Conference for me isn’t really about the time that I run,” Heyne said after the race, still sporting his bright red gloves that he wore on the chilly October day. “It is really more about placing. You just kind of have to do what you want to do to finish where you want.”

In order for Heyne to finish where he wanted, at the head of the pack, the senior knew that he needed to get out to a quick pace. Especially at a hilly course such as the course at the Big Springs Shooting Complex. 

There was one thing holding Heyne back though. He might have trained a little too hard in preparation for the meet. 

“I probably didn’t take as much time off from rests as I needed, Heyne said. “I was still a little tired when I came out onto the course today. I still put in the work over the years so I had confidence going into this meet. I knew I just had to come here and get it done.”

Heyne admitted that his pace for the first mile was good, but maybe a little fast for the course, but he didn’t want to back down for the rest of the course because of a fear that his pace would slow down too much and he’d be caught by the pack. 

Heyne was able to complete the second lap and crossed the finish line first, more than 40 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor. 

Although he wasn’t concerned about the time Heyne finished the race with a time of 16:37.2. 

Overall English Valleys had a quick day at the SICL meet. The boys finished with 78 points to finish second to Lynville-Sully. 

Isaac Frazier finished eighth overall in the meet. Teammate Evan Koehn was ninth. Jack Osborne finished 35th overall. Hunter Offerman rounded out the race with a 44th place finish. 

The Sigourney boys had four racers. Troy Klett led the Savages with a 7th place finish. Levi Myers would finish 18th. Jordan Anderson finished 34th and Isaac Jones was able to finish 41st. 

Hunter Grandstaff from Keota would finish 51st overall. 

In the girls race the English Valleys girls team finished second overall with a total of 35 points. Lynville-Sully won that meet with 29 points. 

Anna Luers led the way for the Bears with a second place finish and a time of 20:06. Addison Achenbach was sixth overall. Aubrey Achenbach also finished in the top-10 with a ninth place run. Kailor Lown was able to finish 11th. Kaylynn Caster finished 15th. Kaylee Frazier finished 19th.  

Sigourney was led by Brynn Clarahan who finished fifth. Ellie Yates was able to bring home a 7th place finish. Addison Yates crossed the line in 13th. Cloee Wilson was able to finish in 32nd.