Mt. Pleasant, IA- The 2025 Southeast Conference championship meet ran last night and there were several ranked teams and individuals competing against one another and each one of them showed why they belonged in the rankings.
Starting with the girls’ race, Mt. Pleasant’s Avery Fedler turned in her season best time of 18 minutes and 42 seconds for the conference individual title, which was 24 seconds faster than Avery Rump of Fort Madison. The freshman has already made her mark in a competitive conference,
“It feels awesome. So much respect to them. There are so many great athletes in our conference and it’s so fun to be able to get to race against all of them. And it’s a lot of pride knowing that I get to win this conference and represent this amazing conference well.”
Also turning in one of her best times of the season was Quintrie Lee for the Panthers. Lee finished with the bronze medal with a time of 20 minutes and 15 seconds. Panther girls’ head coach Lyle Murray talked about his team’s performance after the meet,
“Yeah, I thought they ran well. Avery Fedler ran a great race. She really poured it on that. That final lap. I thought Quintrie Lee had the race of the night. She set a big, attainable goal and she knocked it out of the park. I mean she was just rolling. One of the smartest races I’ve seen out of our kids this year, Nelle Peterson, senior, gave all she had. Summer had a great race. I think another season best. It would have been nice to have a team score. We had a kid come up sick at the end of the day and that’s just life unfortunately. So, but, no, overall, I’m happy.”
Fedler also talked about getting to learn from the sophomore as she hopes to make it back-to-back trips to the state meet in less than a week,
“Yeah, it’s awesome getting to work alongside her and have conversations with her that I don’t get to have with everybody is really special and getting to just encourage one another to do our best every single time and push each other to do better.”
Alex Jo Steward finished in 12th place for Fairfield with a time of 22 minutes and 43 seconds. The Trojans claimed 5th place with 77 points.
Fort Madison claimed the team championship for the second consecutive season with just 29 total points, a 21-point buffer against Washington.
On the boys’ side, Washington’s Andrew Rees defended his individual title by turning in one of his best performances of the season with a mark of 16 minutes and 39 seconds.
However, the single effort was not enough as Fort Madison usurped the title away from the Demons as Riley Tripp, Hunter Wiegand, Nolan Guzman, and Mason Mcley finished 2nd through 5th place, respectively, to finish the night with 27 points.
Grabbing 9th place and a medal was Mt. Pleasant’s Silas Hulett with a time of 17 minutes and 42 seconds. Additionally, Ben Leishman finished just outside the top 10 with a 12th place time of 18 minutes and 41 seconds. The Panthers took 3rd place with 103 points.
Brice Boatright anchored Fairfield with a time of 18 minutes and 47 seconds, which was good enough for 15th place. The Trojans took 5th place as a team with 116 points.
The Class 3A boys’ and girls’ state qualifying meets are set to run on Wednesday, October 22nd. Mt. Pleasant, Burlington, Fort Madison, Keokuk, and Washington will travel to Williamsburg, while Fairfield will head to Pella.