Clear Creek Amana senior Wyatt Sedlacek and sophomore Cole LiebeBy Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

SOLON – The big show for the Clear Creek Amana boys cross country team comes next week.

The Clippers showed they were ready for that performance in Thursday’s dress rehearsal.

Running on the same course against much of the same competition it will face at the state qualifying meet next week, Clear Creek Amana placed fourth at the WAMAC Meet at the Solon Nature and Recreation Area on Thursday.

“We definitely wanted to run well, we had goals for places but we went into this as a dress rehearsal for next week,” Clear Creek Amana coach Ben Robison said. “Next week is where it all matters and I can’t be any happier than what we got today.”

The WAMAC meet provided a preview of what 3A No. 13 Clear Creek Amana will need to do next Thursday to reach the state meet.

On Thursday the Clippers finished behind 3A top-ranked Mount Vernon-Lisbon, Class 4A Western Dubuque and 3A No. 7 Marion in the team standings.

Mount Vernon-Lisbon and Marion are both in the state qualifying field next week along with Williamsburg, which finished fifth on Thursday, 46 points behind Clear Creek Amana.

“This was a really good practice run for districts because the main threats for getting in the top three are Marion, Mount Vernon and Williamsburg and they are all here,” Clear Creek Amana senior Wyatt Sedlacek said. “This meet is almost identical to districts.”

Clear Creek Amana had three runners finish in the top 20 on Thursday all within one second of one another.

Sedlacek led the way finishing 17th in 17:13 while freshman Nick O’Connor was 18th in 17:14 and sophomore Cole Liebe was 19th in 17:14.

“It helps running in a pack and having someone to push you,” Liebe said. “It feels good knowing that if one person doesn’t feel that well racing that you always have someone to pick it up.”

Ben Oxley finished 33rd in 17:47 and Luke Wingert was 35th in 17:50 as Clear Creek Amana finished with 122 points.

The Clippers now turn their attention to next week’s state qualifier as they attempt to qualify for the state meet after missing out by one point a year ago.

“It was really good to see the same teams that we are up against next week,” O’Connor said. “We are able to train for that before next week.”

WAMAC Meet
Team scores – 1. Mount Vernon-Lisbon 35; 2. Western Dubuque 71; 3. Marion 82; 4. Clear Creek Amana 122; 5. Williamsburg 168; 6. Vinton-Shellsburg 183; 7. Benton Community 209; 8. Central DeWitt 211; 9. Center Point-Urbana 246; 10. Anamosa 247; 11. Independence 314; 12. Solon 316; 13. West Delaware 370; 14. South Tama 370; 15. Dyersville Beckman 464; 16. Maquoketa 470.

Individual results – 1. Myles Bach (Mar) 15:36; 2. Jeremy Fopma (Mar) 15:37; 3. Jack Young (MVL) 16:35; 4. Thatcher Krob (MVL) 16:39; 5. Joe Freiburger (WB) 16:42; 6. Nathan Betts (WD) 16:42; 7. Liam Conroy (MVL) 16:46; 8. Will Dehaan (CD) 16:49; 9. Ben Lamparek (Will) 16:53; 10. Garrett Herring (MVL) 16:57.

Solon (316) – 28. Jorel Justus 17:28; 61. Tanner Larkey 18:48; 72. Payton Philipp 19:05; 75. Jake Roskopf 19:12; 80. Christian Haight 19:18; 92. Luke Yetley 20:02; 98. Matt Shafer 20:17.

Clear Creek Amana (122) – 17. Wyatt Sedlacek 17:13; 18. Nick O’Connor 17:14; 19. Cole Liebe 17:14; 33. Ben Oxley 17:47; 35. Luke WIngert 17:50; 51. Jack Wingert 18:35; 76. Ben Szot 19:14.