Tigers’ Grass, Heitbrink qualify for state cross country

Red Oak’s Emmanuel Grass and Hayden Heitbrink will both run in this week’s Iowa State Cross Country Meet.
Grass ran a 17:59 for 10th place and Heitbrink was just behind in 11th with a time of 18:01.
“Super proud of these two young men,” said Red Oak coach Sueann French of her state qualifiers. “They have worked hard all season and the summer leading up to the season. The boys team came up short to making it as a team, but we are already thinking of next season and how we can improve!! We are young and have so much talent.”
Chariton captured the team title with a score of 44. Okoboji Milford was the runner up with 81 points. The top two teams and the top 12 individual runners advance to this week’s Iowa State Cross Country meet at the Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge Nov. 1-2.
Clarinda’s Kyle Wagoner ran a 16:49.89 to win the individual title.
The Tigers finished with 128 points for fifth place.
Van Meter’s girls had three runners place among the top four to win the team title with 30 points. PCM Monroe was second with 52 points.
Red Oak’s girls did not have a full complement of runners and did not post a team score.
Marlee Perrien led the Tigers with a 32nd place time of 24:49. Cate Horn added a 47th place finish and Gillian Heim was 62nd.
“Marlee had a nice race as well as Cate Horn who has really improved the last few weeks,” French said. “Can’t wait to see what these girls can do next year.”
Grass and Heitbrink will run as part of the Class 2A portion of state on Saturday in Fort Dodge.