IPSWICH – Some of the names are different this season, but the results continue to be at an elite level for the Ipswich girls’ cross country team.
A trio of seventh graders has joined the varsity ranks, and the Tigers have had five runners among the top six overall finishers in their last three meets, including the top five in one meet, finishing only behind defending state champion Ella Boekelheide of Northwestern in those meets.
“We’ve been really fortunate to run well,” Ipswich coach Todd Thorson.
Ipswich’s top runners right now include senior Madisyn Gellhaus, eighth grader Jennay Gisi, and seventh graders Isabella Galbraith, Jayla Stiles, and Kalynn Oban.
Thorson knew the young girls were good after watching them at the middle school level last fall.
“Last year they ran the middle school meets and they went 1-2-3 in every meet they ran,” Thorson said. “And I knew when they combined the boys and girls up in Pierre and the girls still beat all the boys, and went 1-2-3, I knew they were going to be pretty good right out of the gate.”
He had the trio run in the junior varsity race earlier this season at the Augustana Twilight meet. The results were the same.
“Those girls actually beat all the AA schools in JV,” Thorson said.
And it wasn’t just any junior varsity race.
“I thought that was good momentum,” Thorson said, “and there was 400 people in that JV race.”
Thorson said the runners are all very even in ability and the team has had different runners finish first in meets this season.
“There is some good strategy to pack run when you have equal talent, too. Even on a bad day, you can stay together for 12 minutes, well the race isn’t going to change a whole heck of a lot in the last 4 or 5 minutes,” Thorson said. “We pack run for 10-14 minutes and then we see what’s going to happen.”
What happened at last week’s Lake Region Conference meet is the Tigers finished second through sixth, only behind Boekelheide. The Ipswich runners were about as close to each other as possible.
“We were 12 seconds apart 1 through 5 at the conference meet,” Thorson said. “I’ve never had something like that, and I’ve had some pretty good teams.”
Ipswich was runner-up at last year’s State B meet and returned all five runners, who happen to be having a good season again this fall, just not all at the varsity level.
“All five from last year are running better this year,” Thorson said. “It’s not that somebody fell off.”
It’s just that these youngsters are rising to the challenge.
“I think they just expect to train hard and race hard,” Thorson said. “That’s just part of the years of having tradition, I guess.”
Thorson does his best to make sure all of the runners are appreciated, motivated and valued.
“We talk about we and us and team,” Thorson said.
He noted that Gellhaus, who finished runner-up at last year’s state meet, has handled the situation well, complementing her new varsity teammates.
“I’ve seen Madisyn more than once come up to them immediately following and she was just as excited and happy for them as she was for herself,” Thorson said, “especially at the conference meet.”
The Tigers will be competing in the Region 1B meet at 2 p.m. Wednesday in Webster. It’s a region that features many of the state’s top squads.
“It’s by the far the toughest region,” Thorson said, “but I kind of like that, because that makes you ready for state.”
With the way the Tigers are running, it appears that they are ready to make their mark at the upcoming state meet next week in Huron.
When asked if this year’s squad is the best that he has in the program’s rich history in cross country, Thorson responded, “It’s gotta be pretty close.”
He noted that the 2013 Ipswich team placed all five members among the top 16 runners at the state meet.
“That was quite a team,” Thorson said.
The veteran coach thinks this year’s team has a chance to go one better.
“I think they have a strong chance of having five in the top 15, for sure,” Thorson said. “I really feel like that’s the case.”
