Representing Turkey Valley on the cross country courses this fall are (l-r) Hazel Nieman, Bella Stika and Madalyn Vseteka. (Photo by Becky Walz)
The Turkey Valley Trojans are getting close to the time of the year that most cross country coaches call their “championship season.”
For Sarah Bakula and her Trojan harriers, that means more than half of her squad’s meets are complete after Tuesday’s run at Waukon.
“We’re training through the meets eventually with the goal to increase aerobic fitness,” said Bakula. “We’re looking toward the end of October, where districts and hopefully state are, where we’re going to peak and where we’re going to drop the mileage and focus on our best times of the year.”
TV ran at Starmont last week Tuesday and the temperature at the start of the girls race was unseasonably warm.
That mid-80-degree mercury isn’t always the best weather to run in, and the Trojans’ time reflected those less-than-ideal conditions.
“Biologically, our bodies can handle only so much heat,” said Bakula. “So your body is going to slow down and it’s going to get fatigued faster in general. I wouldn’t say that’s for everybody. Some people can certainly run really great in the heat. It’s just not ideal.”
Bella Stika, a sophomore, clipped out on the 5K course at Starmont to a tune of 23:02.37, which placed her in the 34th position.
Stika’s sophomore teammate – Hazel Nieman – finished her race in a time of 23:37.86. Nieman is looking to improve on that 53rd placing the rest of the way in 2024. She’s eyeing a career PR that is well over a minute faster than that.
“She’s a lot stronger than she was last year. She didn’t even think she was going to run that fast last year,” said Bakula of Nieman’s PR. “I think it’s fully possible this year. Her and Bella have been doing a lot of workouts together.”
Nieman is only about 15 seconds off of her career PR (22:29), which was set at the conference meet last year. Her PR this fall of 22:44 was accomplished at the All-American meet at Luther College in Decorah the week prior to this Starmont run.
“They are improving, whether that’s just in mindset – at least going out and giving an effort, because your best effort is not always going to be a PR,” said Bakula.
TV freshman Madalyn Vsetecka earned a top-10 finish in the JV girls race with a time of 25:36.22 (eighth place). Trojan sophomore Avery Franzen ran 25:28 in the boys JV race, which put him in the 94th slot.
Bakula said the Trojans always have one “fun day” during the year, which came last week Wednesday, the day before the race at Starmont. The TV runners – including the middle-schoolers – competed in ultimate football out on the Trojans’ gridiron just down from the school building.
“It’s still running related. They still get a good cardio workout because they have to keep running,” said Bakula.
The Trojans can also look forward to Bakula’s culinary skills as the team gets to take part in a breakfast at her house during homecoming week, which is slated for next week at TV.
“It kind of breaks up the season a little bit,” said Bakula.
The Trojans run at the Cresco Invite on Saturday, Oct. 5, then South Winneshiek hosts its home invite that following Tuesday, Oct. 8. Central Elkader is the host school for the Upper Iowa Conference meet on Thursday, Oct. 17. The state qualifier in Class 1A for Turkey Valley – at a site yet to be determined – is slated to go down on Thursday, Oct. 24.
Submit A Comment
Fill out the form to submit a comment. All comments require approval by our staff before it is displayed on the website.