The best on the cross country course in the Southeast Iowa Superconference got together Tuesday night at Hillcrest Academy and when the dust cleared, the WACO Warriors stood alone with the hardware.

The No. 4 in Class 1A WACO Warrior boys ran down their team title with a score of 73 points, beating second place No. 12 in Class 1A Louisa-Muscatine’s 83. Jude Dykstra made it a Warrior sweep, winning the individual title by more than 15 seconds in 16:47. After the meet, the group of Warrior champions talked with KCII Sports about the win. “We came here to win! Just win! Run our hearts out. Give it everything. PR. This is really exciting. There were a lot of ranked teams here, and a lot of the other teams ran really well today too, so to win is amazing. It’s great to see all the training we did over the summer pay off. We have a great group of guys this season and it feels really good to have it pay off with this group of people. It’s that level of excitement because we are all so close as a team and that final feeling of ‘We did it!’ is almost indescribable. (We’re going to celebrate) with a pizza party! The job’s not finished. We still have to get to State and perform at even a higher level there than we did tonight!”

Other WACO finishers included Locken Henderson seventh, Garrett Landau ninth, Gavin Slagel 20^th, Hunter Wilson 36^th, Tristan Luitjens 37^th, and Wyatt Wilson 87^th. The WACO girls had the highest individual finish of any local team with Josie Dykstra runner-up in 20:10. Chloe Glosser of Pekin was the individual winner in 19:36 and Van Buren won the team title with 59 points. Other Warrior girls included Macie Carter eighth and Deedra Graber 61^st.

The No. 10 in Class 1A Columbus Wildcat boys were third with 94 points. The ‘Cats were led by Victor Tovar 12^th in 18:09, followed by Ryan Villa 14^th, Drake Marin 19^th, Cade Storm 24^th, Kevin Villa 25^th, Elias Gonzalez-Bravo 39^th, and Alan Miranda 43^rd. The Wildcat girls were sixth with 136 points, led by Iris Garza 12^th, Gabi Duran 19^th, Isabel Rendon 39^th, Naveiah Garza 50^th, and Rozlynn Garza 55^th.

The Lone Tree girls were eighth with 160 points. Lion leader was Lydia Hartman 20^th in 23:03, followed by Addyson Eiben 30^th, Jazmine Nino 46^th, Ava Christofferson 49^th, and Abby Zaruba 57^th. The Lion boys were 10^th with 315 points, led by Brock Nebergall 16^th in 18:16, followed by Dallas Grimm 55^th, Trenton McKean 69^th, Carter Parrish 81^st, and Max Poock 94^th.

The Hillcrest Academy Raven boys were 11^th as a team with 328 points, led by Calvin Meller’s 27^th in 18:47 and followed by Jaxson Brokaw 52^nd, Isaac Beachy 63^rd, Braden Hartsock 91^st, Lucas Beachy 95^th and Mateo Rodriguez-Yoder 96^th. The Raven girls did not have a team score, they were led by Marie Yoder fourth in 20:36 and Siena Stanerson sixth.

The Winfield-Mt. Union boys were 12^th with 375 points, paced by Brayden Cline 46^th in 19:52 and followed by Bowen Thomson 64^th, Parker Wilson 82^nd, Konner Kinneberg 85^th, and Adlin Wilkerson 98^th. For the Lady Wolves, Ashlyn Bender was 62^nd.

The Highland boys were 16^th with 416 points. The Huskies were powered by Kyler Fink 67^th in 21:18, followed by Alan Nass 84^th, Brayden Zywiec 86^th, Jackson Robinson 89^th and Chase Hickenbottom 90^th. For the girls, Grace Bombei was 14^th in 22:19 and Aubrey Hahn 32^nd.

The top 15 individual boys and girls each earned All-Superconference awards.