Despite being bumped up to Class 2A after finishing fifth at the Class 1A State Meet a year ago, the Pella Christian boys cross country team has seen similar, if not more, success this season.

The Eagles are currently ranked #10 in Class 2A and have been on an excellent run as of late. The Pella Christian boys have won the team titles at their last two meets at Lynnville-Sully and PCM. Additionally, #12 ranked individual runner Kaden Van Wyngarden has taken the top spot on the podium in the Eagles last three meets. 

Fueling the successful results for the Pella Christian squad, has been the overall consistency of the team. The steady improvement of freshmen Logan Gallaher, Sawyer Meinders, and Paxton Bouma has put eight Eagles within four minutes of each in recent meets. Pella Christian head coach Mike Buchheit says that the consistent improvement of the freshman has him excited for what his squad could do come postseason time.

“They were a good two minutes off the pace of our fifth runner before the last two weeks and now they’re on the heels of our #5 runner. So, if we’ve got a couple freshmen that are just learning the season, learning the 5K courses and how to keep themselves healthy as they work through that. There’s some opportunity for us to potentially have some freshman boys that are going to contribute to what goes on by the time we get to the championship part of the season with conference and state qualifying and maybe even before that since we got a couple meets coming up yet.” 

The Eagles will split their cross country teams on Tuesday, sending a boys and girls varsity team to the Williamsburg Invitational, and with the depth of the team will have another boys and girls squad stepping up into varsity roles at the Knoxville Invitational.