South Dakota’s best distance runners will descend on Huron today for the State Cross Country Meet at Broadland Creek Golf Course. Five of last year’s six individual champions will be back in the field trying to defend their titles.
The Class A boys get things started at noon, followed by the AA boys at 12:30 p.m., the B boys at 1 p.m., the A girls at 1:30, the AA girls at 2, and the B girls at 2:30. An awards ceremony will take place at the conclusion of the final event of the afternoon.
Here is a look at each of the classes.
CLASS AA
Aberdeen Central is coming off another strong boys’ campaign. The Golden Eagles were second at the Eastern South Dakota Conference meet the last time they ran. A meet last week at Huron was canceled due to the weather, but the two-week break doesn’t concern Central boys’ coach Greg Murley.
“We’ve done some of that before,” Murley said of a break before the state meet.
He said the Huron meet was going to be more of a workout than anything.
“We were going to go and get out hard and go into a tempo-type run, which is a little slower run and then work the hills,” Murley said. “Instead of doing that we ran the overpass to get some of the tempo stuff. We did a similar thing that day anyhow.”
Last year Central went into the state meet with lofty goals, only to have their most disappointing race of the season. The Golden Eagles would like to change that narrative this weekend.
“We don’t hide it. We own that we didn’t coach well or run well last year. Last year is last year,” Murley said. “They’re a serious group. There’s a not a bunch of ‘focus on what’ we’re doing. As a matter of fact, they’re probably a little bit more of a group where you say, hey just ‘relax, do what you need’ to do.”
Still, the Golden Eagles are strategizing on what they need to do to make a big impact on today’s race.
“The guys that we’re keying on that we need to race against are similar to the ESD,” Murley said. “We raced really well at the ESD meet and Brandon Valley just had a really good day. Hopefully we can turn that around and make some points, and figure out ways to keep some of those gaps down. “
Central will be led by Carson Urlacher, who has had a stellar season. Murley believes that he can be near the top of the field.
“Certainly he can be in the top six,” Murley said, “but I don’t think the top three’s out of his realm.”
This year’s field of runners will be among some of the best in state history, according to Murley.
“I would suspect that in the crowd somewhere there’s going to be some big-time coaches,” Murley said of getting a chance to see potential recruits.
The overwhelming favorite to win the AA boys’ team title is Sioux Falls Lincoln.
“It would surprise me if Lincoln didn’t win it,” Murley said. “If you simulate the meet out they win it by 55 points. They’re number five guy is 11th in the state.”
That said, Central will look to run up to its potential and be among the top teams at the meet.
“We typically run pretty well at state. We like the course. We’ve been on the course. It’s not like it’s something new to us,” Murley said. “I think Brandon Valley is the second best team in the state, and I think … that if things go our way and we run really well, we can do some things.”
The Central girls will be looking to harness momentum gained at the ESD Meet and carry that into today’s action.
“We’ve had a really good week of practice,” said Central girls’ coach Eric Pedersen. “Since ESD it’s kind of been pretty upbeat.”
Like their boys counterparts, the girls haven’t had a meet in two weeks, either. Pedersen said there are two ways of looking at the break.
“A meet right before the state meet is kind of a toss-up sometimes, where you want to keep the mental competitive edge, you don’t want to lose that over the week,” Pedersen said, “but the physical side of things is maybe almost a benefit too to have fresher legs.”
The Golden Eagles will be led by all-conference runner Allie Novstrup. Pedersen would like to see her make the podium later today.
“For her to maybe get in that top 25 for state would be really cool for her,” Pedersen.
The coach said that Novstrup knows the Broadland Creek course well and has a solid idea of race strategy there.
“She kind of knows strategically were she needs to get it in a little bit,” Pedersen said. “The thing about her too, is she’s got just incredible drive and confidence. She really thinks, like ‘I can go out there and do anything,’ and I think that carries her a lot.”
Pedersen knows the competition will be fierce and just wants his runners to compete to the best of their abilities.
“Just bringing what you can bring,” Pedersen said. “That’s ultimately what counts.”
CLASS A
The Aberdeen Roncalli girls finished runner-up at both the Northeast Conference Meet and the Region 1A Meet. The Cavaliers also plan on making some noise today.
“The girls are so excited, not just that they qualified for the state meet, but they really want to run well to finish off the season,” said Roncalli coach Casey Steele. “I’m really proud of the attitude that they have. Sometimes you have kids that their goal is just to make it to the state meet and it’s like their season’s done. This is not the tenor of our team right now.”
The Cavaliers will be led by returning state place winner Addison Cassady. Other team members who have been among the leaders all fall include Hazel Kannegieter, and seventh-graders Taylor McComsey and Harper Kline.
“Addison made it on the podium last year and Hazel was just missing it. We’ve got two girls that are experienced, and I think that helps the younger girls to know what to do, when to do it,” Steele said. “We’ve got to get out in the mix early on because the field is so much different than any other race we’ve had all season long. You’re bringing the best runners from all over the state in.”
While the Cavaliers will try to get out early, Steele said they still need to run their own race.
“The key to running to a fast race is to run even splits, to be as consistent as we can,” Steele said, “from the first mile through to the end of the race. … We try to break down the race to be where we want to be at the end of the race, and the end of the second mile, so we can really just compete that last mile.”
Steele that Sioux Falls Christian will be the team to beat, especially on the girls’ side.
He said the SFC’s top girls runners will set such a fast past that even quality runners “if they try to go out with those girls, they are going to blow up in the race. Those kids, unless they are ill cannot be touched, that’s how good they are. They ran faster times at the Augie Twilight than most collegiate runners did.”
CLASS B
The Ipswich girls have been next to untouchable lately. A pack of five runners (which includes an eighth grader and three seventh graders) has powered the Tigers to the Lake Region Conference and Region 1B championships in the past two weeks.
“I still feel like we’ve got a better race in us. I feel like our middle mile could probably be a little bit faster,” said Ipswich coach Todd Thorson. “Part of pack running or breaking in a young team is not putting them in position to fail. We’re still learning a lot every race. Outside of Madisyn (Gellhaus) there hasn’t been a lot of varsity races for the other four.”
Running in a pack is nothing new for the Tigers, it’s just that this year it features all five runners with such narrow gaps between them.
“Even when Macy (Heinz) was there, we have always pack ran,” Thorson said, “but I don’t remember having the ability to run all five that close together, so it might be a little more prominent.”
Thorson said there could be something very unique about this year’s girls race. There are very few girls projected to finish in the top 30 positions outside of the top four teams: Deubrook Area, Northwestern, Kimball-White Lake, and Ipswich.
“That’s extremely rare,” Thorson said.
Northwestern’s Ella Boekelheide, the defending state champion, and Deubrook’s Nora Olsen, are the only runners to have finished ahead of Ipswich’s top five runners in the past month.
However, Thorson also pointed out something else of potential significance: historically seventh graders have had a tough time making the top 10 at state meets.
“Seventh graders in the top 10 in the B state meet is pretty rare,” Thorson said, noting that Boekelheide was sixth, and Heinz was seventh in their seventh-grade years of competition.
Thorson said that in his 20-plus years of coaching, “I only saw a handful of seventh graders who have placed in the top 10. It’s harder to be in that top 10 than people think.”
Thorson said the boys’ team championship is pretty much a coin toss.
“I think it’s a two-team battle. It’s Mitchell Christian and Philip,” Thorson said. “It’s been a battle the last three years. I do feel like Mitchell has been running better than year’s past.”
Aberdeen Christian has two boys running in the race today. Joseph Richards and Andrew Schwab both qualified at last week’s Region 1B meet.
