Clear Creek Amana’s Luke Wingert and Nick O’Connor run at the Bob Brown Classic on Thursday. By Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Ben Robison is a lot more interested in places, times and final results in October than he is on the first day of September.

That didn’t stop the Clear Creek Amana coach from being excited about the performance his team turned in on Thursday.

Clear Creek Amana put a pair of runners in the top 25 and finished third at the Bob Brown Cross Country Classic at Kickers Soccer Field in Iowa City.

“We are just trying to keep things in the perspective right now that we are trying to be good in October,” Robison said. “We’ve trained through the last two meets and they aren’t going to feel good coming into this and that’s a hard mindset to get into but they have done a really good job.”

Wyatt Sedlacek placed 12th in 17:23.47 and freshman Nick O’Connor finished 21st in 17:52.7 as the Clippers finished third in the team race behind a pair of ranked WAMAC opponents.

Class 3A top-ranked Mount Vernon-Lisbon put  five runners in the top seven and cruised to the team title with 25 points.

Led by individual champion Jeremey Fopma (16:05.32) and runner-up Myles Bach (16:52.9) Marion finished second with 63.

Clear Creek Amana was third with 118 points while Regina was eighth with 208 points and Solon was ninth with 228 points.

“We had a great game plan coming into today and they executed it perfect,” Robison said. “I think tonight was a really good night for us.”

All five Clear Creek Amana runners finished in the top 31 as the Clippers finished 18 points in front of fourth place Calamus-Wheatland.
Regina junior Nate Green runs at the Bob Brown Classic.
Luke Wingert finished 26th and sophomore Cole Liebe was 28th for Clear Creek Amana.

Jack Wingert placed 31st to round out the Clipper scorers.

“We were supposed to pack together for the first mile and then go has hard as we could,” O’Connor said. “I was extremely happy with how it went.”

After opening the season with a 16th place finish at the 20-team Cedar Rapids Prairie Invitational on Saturday the Clippers showed sizeable growth Thursday.

O’Connor took more than minute off his time from Saturday in the second meet of his career.

“I was actually more nervous this meet than I was on Saturday,” O’Connor said. “I have no idea why but it worked out.”

Nate Green finished 13th in 17:24.03 to pace Regina at its home meet on Thursday.

Junior Nathan Meyer was 22nd in 17:55.08 as Regina finished behind 2A No. 12 Tipton and 2A No. 10 Monticello.

“I think we saw it as a chance to see where we are at,” Green said. “We knew we were going to have great competition here and we wanted to see what we could do against them.”

Solon was led by senior Adam Smith who placed 29th in a time of 18:20.88.

Sophomore Jorel Justus added a 35th place finish for the Spartans who finished ninth in the 12-team meet.

Boys Results 
Team Scores – 1. Mount Vernon-Lisbon 25; 2. Marion 63; 3. Clear Creek Amana 118; 4. Calamus-Wheatland 136; 5. Anamosa 157; 6. Tipton 164; 7. Monticello 173; 8. Regina 208; 9. Solon 228; 10. Durant 246; 11. Wilton 292; 12. Columbus 350.

Individual results – 1. Jeremy Fopma (MAR) 16:05.32; 2. Myles Bach (MAR) 16:52.9; 3. Thatcher Krob (MV-L) 16:53.78; 4. Chase McLaughlin (MV-L) 16:58.85; 5. Jack Young (MV-L) 17:09.62; 6. Liam Conroy (MV-L) 17:10.10; 7. Garrett Herring (MV-L) 17:10.34; 8. Aaron Loes (MON) 17:13.84; 9. Daniel Miller (ANA) 17:14.26; 10. Zach Krogmann (MV-L) 17:19.63.

Solon – 29. Adam Smith 18:20.88; 35. Jorel Justus 18:42.59; 42. Carly Richey 18:54.13; 57. Luke Yetley 19:34.41; 65. Kenji Fisher 19:52.98.

Regina – 13. Nate Green 17:24.03; 22. Nathan Meyer 17:55.08; 48. Oliver Emery 19:14.84 55. Zach Kratz 19:28.24; 70. Robert Beck 20:00.35.

Clear Creek Amana – 12. Wyatt Sedlacek 17:23.47; 21. Nick O’Connor 17:52.7; 26. Luke Wingert 18:07.54; 28. Cole Liebe 18:17.62; 31. Jack Wingert 18:27.13.