WEBSTER – Deuel edged Milbank by one point for the boys’ team title, while Clark-Willow Lake grabbed the girls’ team crown with Aberdeen Roncalli second at the Northeast Conference Cross Country Meet in Webster on Thursday.
Individual titles went to Jeter Scoular of Milbank and Kamryn Nesheim of CWL. Roncalli’s Addison Cassady finished second for the Cavaliers.
“It was a great race for Clark and a great race for us, too,” said Roncalli coach Casey Steele.
He noted that the Cavaliers were in third place before a late push by Hazel Kannegieter, Taylor McComsey, and Harper Kline propelled the squad into second.
“If the race would have stopped right there with 500 meters to go, Clark would have been first, Milbank second, and we were in third,” Steele said.
Instead, Roncalli’s trio of runners finished the race strong to move the Cavaliers up a spot in the team standings.
“The neat thing that happened was Hazel, and Taylor and Harper Kline all passed people. … They flipped that,” Steele said. “They really demonstrated a lot of determination and guts bringing that in for us to have second place, and that’s a real tribute to the girls.”
Roncalli’s boys finished fifth on the day, their best finish of the season.
“On the boys’ side I was really pleased with our young boys. … We bunched them up pretty tightly,” Steele said, “and to be fifth place with an eighth grader and ninth graders running, that’s a real nice finish and I’m real proud of those kids.”
The Cavaliers will be right back on the same course for the Region 1A meet at 11 a.m. on Wednesday. Steele said his runners are excited about the meet.
“We’re looking forward to it. I think the kids felt really good about their race,” Steele said. “We didn’t back off in our training for this race, to freshen up, so hopefully we’ll get a little rebound with tapering going into our regional meet.”
The Cavaliers will take momentum gained from the NEC into that meet next week.
“I’m real proud of the kids. They came together, both the boys and girls, and they gave an outstanding effort today at our conference meet,” Steele said. “Any other day I don’t think we could have scored any better.”
To see complete meet results, click on the following link:
