Washington’s Micah Rees hangs with the state cross country front pack for a while, finishes 4th in 3A

FORT DODGE — Say this about Micah Rees:

He went for it.

Instead of settling into a comfortable spot, the senior from Washington (Iowa) went out with the leaders and hung on as long as he could.

“I knew I wanted to go with them,” Rees said. “I knew it would be hard to keep up with them the whole way.

“I wanted to be there with them, but I knew that if they put in a surge, they might get away from me.”

That surge came about 2 miles into the race, and Rees settled for fourth place in the Class 3A boys’ race at the state cross country meet Saturday afternoon at Lakeside Golf Course.

Rees finished in 15 minutes, 47 seconds.

Canaan Dunham of Pella won it in 15:18. Last year’s champion, Ethan Eichhorn of Lewis Central was second in 15:25. Those are the two guys Rees battled through more than half of the race.

"I felt really good for the first mile-and-a-half,“ Rees said. ”I feel comfortable being out front ... I do that a lot in southeast Iowa.“

Quentin Nauman of Western Dubuque was sixth; Tommy Tyynismaa of South Tama was seventh.

Gilbert, whose top two runners were freshmen — edged Pella by a 57-63 tally. Lewis Central was third with 100.

Washington was fifth, Solon seventh, Mount Vernon-Lisbon eighth, Clear Creek Amana ninth.

Led by individual winner Marissa Ferebee, Pella repeated as 3A girls’ champion. The Dutch scored 80 points.

Mount Vernon-Lisbon was second with 129, followed by Gilbert (142).

Emrie Johnson and Eastin Whisner were 20th and 23rd for the Mustangs.

“Second is what we were really hoping for,” Johnson said. “We wanted to see how close we could get to Pella. We figured that Gilbert was in reach.

“The last couple of weeks, our top four have done a good job together as a pack. Each other’s presence brings comfort.”

Ferebee finished in 15:38, four seconds ahead of Lindsey Sonderman of Harlan.

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Iris Dahl of Washington finished fifth, Addison Dabroski of Marion was sixth, Amelia Roe of Decorah was ninth.

Dabroski, a sophomore, gave cross country a whirl this season after playing volleyball last year.

“I don’t know what I was hoping for, exactly,” she said. “I just wanted to go as fast as I could.

“I knew it was going to be cold, but I’ve run track meets in cold weather, and it was cold for everybody. I just had to be tough in my mind.”

Marion’s girls finished seventh. Solon was eighth.

Class 3A Iowa high school state cross country

At Fort Dodge (Lakeside Golf Course)

Girls Results

TEAMS

1. Pella 80, 2. Mount Vernon-Lisbon 129, 3. Gilbert 142, 4. Sioux Center 155, 5. Glenwood 172, 6. Ballard 176, 7. Marion 208, 8. Solon 209, 9. Clear Lake 209, 10. Sioux City Heelan 225, 11. Decorah 235, 12. Adel ADM 250, 13. Lewis Central 253, 14. Harlan 276, 15. Clear Creek Amana 332.

INDIVIDUALS

1. Marissa Ferebee (Pella), 18:38; 2. Lindsey Sonderman (Harlan), 18:42; 3. Audrina Jones (Sioux Center), 18:53; 4. Avery Rump (Fort Madison), 18:54; 5. Iris Dahl (Washington), 18:57; 6. Addison Dabroski (Marion), 19:03; 7. Avelyn Vance (Ballard), 19:04; 8. Grace Berglund (Glenwood), 19:08; 9. Amelia Roe (Decorah), 19:09; 10. Emee Dani (Gilbert), 19:13; 11. Tierney Carter (Oskaloosa), 19:14; 12. Claire Pellett (Atlantic), 19:16; 13. Grace Estling (Center Point-Urbana), 19:22; 14. Lucy Murphy (Dubuque Wahlert), 19:22; 15. Anna Feuerbach (Clear Lake), 19:22; 16. Delayna Reese (Lewis Central), 19:24; 17. Autumn Blink (Pella), 19:30; 18. Sydney Dee (Solon), 19:31; 19. Emma Wilkerson (CPU), 19:35; 20. Emrie Johnson (MVL), 19:37.

Boys Results

TEAMS

1. Gilbert 57, 2. Pella 63, 3. Lewis Central 100, 4. Carlisle 144, 5. Washington 186, 6. Winterset 196, 7. Solon 215, 8. Mount Vernon-Lisbon 223, 9. Clear Creek Amana 229, 10. Glenwood 241, 11. South Tama 249, 12. MOC-Floyd Valley 259, 13. Adel ADM 266, 14. DeWitt Central 297, 15. Sioux Center 357.

INDIVIDUALS

1. Canaan Dunham (Pella), 15:18; 2. Ethan Eichhorn (Lewis Central), 15:25; 3. Nathan Vander Waal (Pella), 15:39; 4. Micah Rees (Washington), 15:47; 5. Andrew Smith (Glenwood), 15:51; 6. Quentin Nauman (Western Dubuque), 15:52; 7. Tommy Tyynismaa (South Tama), 15:53; 8. Logan Bleich (Gilbert), 15:55; 9. Jacob Tallman (Gilbert), 15:59; 10. Bryant Keller (Glenwood), 16:05; 11. Devon Browne (Pella), 16:06; 12. Carson Squires (Gilbert), 16:09; 13. Alik McIlravy (North Polk), 16:10; 14. Grady Olberding (MVL), 16:10; 15. Emmett Barber (Gilbert), 16:18; 16. Collin Kessler (Winterset), 16:19; 17. Kevin Coots (Lewis Central), 16:22; 18. Brick Kabela (Solon), 16:25; 19. Ezra DeCleene (Carlisle), 16:27; 20. Zain Mueller (Gilbert), 16:32.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com