After a whole summer and season’s worth of training – countless miles and hours of practice – came the sweet reward of not only a conference championship, but a sweep for all six of Pleasant Valley’s cross country teams at the MAC championship meet.

Girls head coach Jane Wheeler knew the fresh-soph girls race would be the hardest race to win, considering the success of North Scott’s team earlier in the season, but the varsity team also had their own challenges to face. They won the conference championship ten years in a row from 2005-2014, but lost in both 2015 and 2016 by only a few points. They were hungry to reclaim their title. Wheeler states, “I felt pretty confident, mainly because like with fresh-soph, North Scott was going to be our toughest competition. We had beaten them in the last two races, plus we had our two injured girls back. I also felt pretty confident because of the attitude last week.  Everyone seemed relaxed and excited, but at the same time, you just can’t take anything for granted.”

Even JV’s win was predicted to be tough, but they quickly dashed those expectations by nearly scoring a perfect race, placing in the 1, 2, 3, 4, and 10 spots individually. Senior Grace D’Antico won the race, finishing her high school cross country career strong. The strength of JV highlights the depth of girls cross country at Pleasant Valley.

On the other hand, boys head coach Erik Belby felt more confident going into MAC. “I really expected that we would win the conference title—I wasn’t worried about it. We had a fine team back from last year, so I knew our guys had the talent to get the job done.” A Pleasant Valley boy won each of the three races at the meet: senior Konnor Sommer captured the first place title in the varsity race, sophomore Kent Nichols in the fresh-soph race and senior, first-year cross country runner Nathan Zabel for JV.

The Spartans will race their top seven boys and girls at the district meet on Thursday at Crow Creek Park. The teams have a home-course advantage, which will be beneficial, as the top three teams qualify to move forward to the state championship. Both Wheeler and Belby expressed concern that a win at districts won’t come as easily, with the biggest challenge being Dubuque Hempstead. Despite this, the boys are currently ranked 3rd in the state, and the girls 8th, proving they are certainly capable of pulling out a win on Thursday. Come to Crow Creek Park at 4:00pm to cheer them on.