By Ryan Murken Your Prep Sports

FORT DODGE – Clear Creek Amana competed at the state cross country meet for the second time in program history and first since 2013 on Saturday.

Second-year head coach Ben Robison is hoping it was just the beginning.

Clear Creek Amana placed 14th in the Class 3A meet at Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge on Saturday with 282 points.

“I’m hoping that this was the first year of many in a row,” Robison said. “It was really good for our young guys to come up here and see how it all goes. Hopefully this is a start of a lot of big things to come.”

Clear Creek Amana missed a state meet appearance by one point last season.

The Clippers showed measured improvement this season climbing to No. 13 in the 3A rankings, finishing third at the WAMAC conference meet and notching another third-place finish at the state qualifying meet to return to state.

“Clear Creek is pretty unknown in the cross country world I feel like,” Clear Creek Amana senior Ben Szot said. “So we wanted to come in here and prove that we belong as a 3A state team.”

Clear Creek Amana was led by senior Wyatt Sedlacek who finished 42 on Saturday in a time of 17:14.1.

Freshman Nick O’Connor placed 62nd in 17:25.9 in his first state meet appearance while sophomore Cole Liebe was 66th in 17:28 in his state debut.

“The best part was our freshman and sophomore that are in the top three had great races,” Robison said. “I think all of our guys had great races today.”

The WAMAC had a strong day as Mount Vernon-Lisbon won the Class 3A team title with 86 points, two in front of runner-up Grinnell.

Marion juniors Jeremy Fopma and Myles Bach finishes first and second respectively to lead the Indians to a sixth-place finish.

Clear Creek Amana was 14th, four points in front of Sioux City Heelan.

“There is nothing that we could have done better than what we did,” Robison said. “They prepped the way they were supposed to, they ran the race the way they were supposed to. It was perfect, today was perfect.”

State Cross Country Meet Lakeside Golf Course
Class 3A
Team scores – 1. Mount Vernon-Lisbon 86; 2. Grinnell 88; 3. Dallas Center-Grimes 142; 4. Gilbert 162; 5. Pella 173; 6. Marion 184; 7. Decorah 191; 8. Cedar Rapids Xavier 205; 9. Mount Pleasant 208; 10. Carlisle 228; 11. Humboldt 255; 12. Dubuque Wahlert 262; 13. Sergeant Bluff-Luton 266; 14. Clear Creek Amana 282; 15. Sioux City Heelan 286.

Individual results – 1. Jeremy Fopma (Marion) 16:02.6; 2. Myles Bach (Marion) 16:14.5; 3. Miles Scott (Sergeant Bluff-Luton) 16:16; 4. Thomas Clower (Grinnell) 16:20.4; 5. Dylan Cavanaugh (Storm Lake) 16:28.4; 6. Davis Flogel (Dubuque Wahlert) 16:28.7; 7. Logan Murray (Mount Pleasant) 16:32.6; 8. Thatcher Krob (Mount Vernon-Lisbon) 16:33.3; 9. Nick Bernhagen (Pella) 16:34.8; 10. Phoenix Shadden (Atlantic) 16:37; 11. J.J. Orput (Carlise) 16:37.1; 12. Alex Thompson (Dallas Center-Grimes) 16:37.8; 13. Trenton O’Halloran (Grinnell) 16:38.6; 14. Lucas Chamberland (Grinnell) 16:39; 15. Gus Hayes (Decorah) 16:41.7.

Clear Creek Amana (282) – 31. Wyatt Sedlacek 17:14.1; 46. Nick O’Connor 17:25.9; 50. Cole Liebe 17:28; 77. Ben Oxley 17:54.8; 78. Luke Wingert 17:56.3; 98. Jack Wingert 18:49.6; 102. Ben Szot 19:43.9.