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TEAM STANDINGS

Class A

1. Pella 41; 2. Boone 48; 3. Dallas Center-Grimes 85; 4. Winterset 117; 5. Webster City 158; 6. Ballard 172; 7. Saydel 172; 8. Norwalk 200; 9. Perry 236; 10. Carlisle 270.

Class B

1. PCM Monroe 58; 2. Nevada 59; 3. Gilbert 65; 4. Iowa Falls-Alden 147; 5. North Polk 148; 6. Clarke 168; 7. Bondurant-Farrar 175; 8. ADM Adel 191; 9. Humboldt 191; 10. Creston 240.

Class C

1. Roland-Story 41; 2. Eagle Grove 55; 3. Panorama 67; 4. I-35 Truro 128; 5. Ogden 142; 6. CMB Baxter 145; 7. Nodaway Valley 158; 8. Clarion-Goldfield 186; 9. South Hardin 203; Colfax-Mingo and West Central Valley NTS.

Class D

1. BCLUW Conrad 58; 2. Grundy Center 85; 3. South Hamilton 111; 4. Orient-Macksburg 134; 5. Madrid 153; 6. Earlham 154; 7. Lynnville-Sully 157; 8. Prairie Valley 167; 9. Colo-NESCO 183; AGWSR Ackley and Martensdale-St. Marys NTS.

Individual Leaders

Class A-Evan Selsor (Winterset) 15:59; Class B-Jake Potter (PCM) 17:08; Class C-Zach Thompson (Eagle Grove) 16:38; Class D-Parker Drake (AGWSR) 17:14.

Webster City Results (Class A)

6. Alex Lamp 16:57; 17. Matt Severe 17:56; 37. Mason Hedeen 18:58; 43. Jacob Clabaugh 19:25; 55. Derek Turner 19:58; 56. Colin Ryan 19:59; 60. Anthony Peck 20:24.

South Hamilton Results (Class D)

13. Keaton Hake 19:00; 19. Ryan Fisher 19:39; 23. Allen Fiddelke 19:55; 24. Joe Mechaelsen 19:55; 32. Arlen Burroughs 20:18; 40. Chris Engelby 20:36; 47. Jordan Lutjen 21:07.

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HUXLEY - As he stepped to the starting line on Monday, Webster City junior Alex Lamp was admittedly nervous. He had reason to be.

Facing a state-meet caliber field, Lamp never backed down though. Instead he flourished, finishing sixth in the Class A field at the Ballard Invitational to earn himself a medal and a super-sized dose of confidence.

"Oh yeah, I'm really happy about that one," Lamp said after turning in a time of 16 minutes, 57 seconds - his second straight sub-17 race. "I got a new (personal record), so it went pretty good."

In front of Lamp were a bevy of elite runners, most notably defending Class 3A state champion Evan Selsor of Winterset who eventually pulled away and took the top spot in 15:59. Brogan Austin of Boone was second in 16:02 and Zach Wittenberg of Pella placed third in 16:13. Austin and Wittenberg were both top-10 finishers in 3A at last fall's state meet.

"You've got the very elite runners here, so to run in the top six is something special," Webster City head coach Tony Bussan said. "I feel like Alex is having a breakthrough year. He's gone to the next level now where he's somebody that can be a threat to be all-district and be an individual state qualifier if he keeps working hard."

Webster City placed fifth in the large-class team race with 158 points. Seventh-ranked Pella (3A) hoisted the gold with 41, seven points head of 10th-ranked (3A) Boone.

Senior leader Matt Severe had one of his better races as well for the Lynx. He stayed in the top 20 throughout and eventually crossed the finish line in 17:56, which was good enough for 17th. Mason Hedeen (18:58, 37th), Jacob Clabaugh (19:25, 43rd) and Derek Turner (19:58, 55th) were the three other scoring runners.

Bussan says his boys' squad is continuing to show improvement, but butting heads with the best of the best put the Lynx a little lower in the standings than they are used to.

"Fifth is about where I would have expected us to be," he said. "We know that we've got a lot of work to do and we've got to try to fill our gaps, but our young kids are getting better and working hard."

South Hamilton turned in its third quality performance in as many races and once again surprised head coach Jim Klein following a third-place finish with 111 points in Class D.

"It's been so long since our boys have had success, so it's a nice surprise to have a boys' team that can jump up there (in the standings)," he said. "We really have a nice group right now."

Junior Keaton Hake vaulted to the front half of the field early on and stayed there on his way to a 13th-place result in 19:00. Klein says that Hake's consistency has been key to the early-season success of the Hawks.

"To have Keaton up there, we can coach like we normally do in that we try to get our pack as close to our lead guy as possible," he said. "Keaton looks bigger and stronger than last year, plus he comes from a real athletic family, so it's not like he's not gifted."

Ryan Fisher (19:39, 19th), Allen Fiddelke (19:55, 23rd), Joe Mechaelsen (19:55, 24th) and Arlen Burroughs (20:18, 32nd) were also contributors to South Hamilton's team total.

Also hoisting the championship hardware on Monday were 12th-ranked (2A) PCM Monroe in Class B, sixth-ranked (2A) Roland-Story in Class C, and BCLUW in Class D.