There will be a lot of familiarity with the Aberdeen Central Cross Country teams this fall with an added twist.
Eric Pedersen, who has been the girls’ coach in the past, will now take over the boys’ program as well after Greg Murley stepped down after last season.
Pedersen is inheriting a boys’ team that features three top-25 runners from last year’s state meet.
Carson Urlacher was sixth at state, Tate DeVries was 24th, and Max Nelson was 25th.
“They’ve worked really hard this off season. Tate is coming off of two school records in track,” Pedersen said. “He broke the record in the mile and two mile. He’s been running fantastic to start the season with workouts and stuff.”
Urlacher and Nelson will also be among the state’s premier runners again this season.
“Carson and Max obviously kind right there, too,” Pedersen said, “looking to see what we can get out of them their senior year.”
The trio provides a solid nucleus for the Golden Eagles, who will now be looking to round out the remaining prime scorers for meets like the Eastern South Dakota Conference.
“With those guys being seniors, that would be the goal to try and see where we match up with some of those teams. … I really need to look at filling out a four and a five particularly,” Pedersen said. “The boys team has been fairly thin in numbers … How can we race our best at ESD and then to go out to state and race well, too?”
Pedersen knows that the Golden Eagles have a solid foundation to build upon with their three returning state place winners.
“I’m hoping for our boys that we can kind of get on that podium range again for ESD,” Pedersen said. “It’s going to take some work out of a four and a five, but with Tate and Carson and Max leading the way, I think we’ll be pretty solid there.”
The Central girls provide a bit of a different scenario. The Golden Eagles do not have any returning state place winners, but feature a variety of depth.
“A lot of those girls that were first kind of starting out in the varsity stuff are hopefully ones that can make jumps this year,” Pedersen said.
The Golden Eagles will be led by sophomore Allie Novstrup.
“She’s coming off a fairly successful track and field season, too,” Pedersen said. “Last year, cross country, she was right there. She’s the first sub 19 (minute) girl we’ve had since Melanie Jacobs. … She looks really good right now.”
Pedersen the rest of the top five will likely feature Evie Novstrup, Grace Peszler, Allison Brenner, and Kloe Cochran.
“There’s a pretty large group of girls that are freshmen, sophomores, even some middle schoolers too, that we’re kind of looking at like, how we can assemble a team going forward,” Pedersen said. “That’s been a lot of the focus with the girls.”
In the past, Pedersen has focused on race strategy with the girls, and he is hoping that with experience the girls will have a better feel heading into the season.
“They had a lot heavier summer than what I had them do in the past with the intention of kind of taking that next step with stuff,” Pedersen said, “where it’s kind of we should kind of know what we’re doing at this point.”
Pedersen is looking forward to seeing that summer mileage pay dividends out on the courses this fall, especially at the ESD meet.
“On the girls side we did a lot of mileage and stuff this summer,” Pedersen said. “I’m hopeful for those girls that they can kind of take all that stuff and put it into play as we come into that, that portion of the season.”
The Golden Eagles open their season Friday at the Pierre Invitational.
Central is doing a lot of joint workouts now with one combined head coach.
“I’m excited for this kind of new challenge,” Pedersen said. “It’s a different direction than what we’ve had in the past of having one head coach. I’m looking forward to the challenge, and the awesome kids and families that I get to work with.”
