MITCHELL – Aberdeen Central, led by a runner-up finish from Carson Urlacher, finished second in the boys’ team points at the Eastern South Dakota Conference Cross Country Meet on Saturday.
The Golden Eagles were 14 points behind team champion Brandon Valley.
“I thought we ran well. I thought Brandon Valley had to run really well to beat us,” said Central boys’ coach Greg Murley. “We got out early. We set ourselves up in a great position and did what we needed to do. Brandon Valley kind of countered. They’re a good team. They were better than us today.”
Urlacher clocked a solid time of 15:49.31 during the race.
“Of all the runners that we’ve had in the last 10 years or 12 years, which we’ve had a pretty good stable of them, only a handful of them have broke 16 minutes,” Murley said. “That course was a tough course to break 16 minutes on, and 20 mile an hour winds, pretty open. He ran really, really well.”
Central’s Esten Foss finished seventh with teammate Max Nelson in ninth. Tate DeVries finished 18th, Kyson Fayant came in 21st, and Eli Weinrich was 36th.
Allie Novstrup led the Central girls’ team with a 15th-place finish, earning all-conference honors.
“I think it was cool for Allie to get all-conference. That’s something that she hasn’t been able to do quite yet until today,” said Central girls’ coach Eric Pedersen. “She actually had to kind of put in a little bit of work to get back to that point. She was in 16th coming around the bend with like 300-400 meters left. She kind of kicked it in and got that all-conference spot, so that’s pretty cool for her.”
Evie Novstrup finished in 34th place and set a new personal record in the process.
“Coming in her PR was like 21:03 or something,” Pedersen said. “She ran 20:19 today, so that was a huge PR for her.”
Grace Preszler came in 37th, while Allison Brenner was 45th, Khloe Cochran was 46th, and Iris Ramey was 49th.
The Golden Eagles will conclude their season with the Roger Loecker Invitational at Huron on Thursday, and then head right back to the same course for the State AA meet on Saturday, Oct. 25.
“It will be good to get out there the week before and kind of assess the course,” Pedersen said.
To see complete ESD meet results, click on the following link:
