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Hill City, Newell capture state cross country titles

Custer wins combined team honors




Post-race camaraderie between Custer’s Joe Rush, left, who finished fifth in the Boys Class A, and West Central’s Derek Peters, right. Peters ran away from the Class A field, turning in the best time of the afternoon at any class level.

Post-race camaraderie between Custer’s Joe Rush, left, who finished fifth in the Boys Class A, and West Central’s Derek Peters, right. Peters ran away from the Class A field, turning in the best time of the afternoon at any class level.

RAPID CITY—Regardless of the sport, the weather at Hart Ranch south of Rapid City can markedly influence outcome. Last time it was the driving rain at the Boys Class B Golf meet, and this time it was a prevailing wind that could take the breath out of a competitor running hard into the face of it. The dominant performer at any class level was Derek Peters of West Central, who captured the Boys Class A title with a competition crushing 15:06.20, almost a full minute ahead of second place finisher, Alec Atwood of Beresford.

Red Cloud’s Jade Ecoffey and Tierra Baird.

Red Cloud’s Jade Ecoffey and Tierra Baird.

Peters told his fellow post-race competitors that the wind was great to get away from, but then “you come down that hill, and it’s slamming you in the face all over again.”

Credit must be given to Rapid City Central Activities Director Darren Paulson, in charge of organizing a six race, three class cross country meet, which despite the huge crowd, offered easy access to the start, finish, and awards presentation. There was plenty of parking and even the porta potties were close by and easy to locate.

 

 

“(Paulson) did an amazing job,” said Loren Kambestad, former state Class B champion and Cobbler Cross Country Head Coach. “Of all the (cross country) meets I have been to, this was the best.”

Ipswich scored 29 points, to edge out Freeman Academy/ Marion by three points to win the Class B boys title, a true team effort, because their highest individual finish was Colton Weeldreyer, who placed fifth with a 17:26.12. Newell scored 22 points, to beat Ipswich by 16 in the Girls Class B competition. This was the most dominant team performance of the day. It was a shoulder-to-shoulder battle for much of the race between Newell’s Delaney Leber (19:52.33), and Josie Olsen of Deubrook Area. Built like a sprinter, the powerfully muscled Leber had too much power down the finish-line straight away and beat Olsen by 3.5 seconds, a narrow margin in cross-country.

When he was a freshman, Bison’s Daniel Burkhalter could manage only a third place, but the past two years, Burkhalter has been the Boys Class B champion, and this year proved no different, as he cruised to an easy defense of his state title, in 15:41:27, the best time of the day behind Peters of West Central. Unfortunately, no other Bison could crack the top 25, and the Bison finished in 9th place as a team.

West River finished 1-2- 3 in the Girls Class A final. Hill City had, 33, defending champion Custer, 64, and Rapid City St Thomas More, 67. Just a stone’s throw north of Custer, Hill City has labored under the shadow of their Wildcat rivals for decades, and in cross-country they have had to step up their game and develop a team depth that even the Wildcats could not overcome at Hart Ranch.

Karlee Simmons of Hill City vied for the race lead much of the way, but faded near the finish line and finished in second, ten seconds behind individual champion, Cait Savey of Beresford, who turned in a time of 18:35.75. But Simmons had three teammates in the top 25, Janean Hanka, 9, Marion Hohn, 14, and Lizzy Escalante, 16, that nailed down the state A title for the Lady Rangers.

Peter’s dominate performance was enough to give West Central the Boys Class A title. Custer got second in state, behind the combined legs of senior Joe Rush, a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Tribe, who finished fifth (16:11.77), Nathaniel Youngblood, 7, and Max Oesterling, 19. After the race, Rush waited at the finish line, helping every distressed runner he could reach back to his feet, and if there was an individual sportsmanship award to be handed out for cross country, Rush would win it, hands down.

In the closest race of the afternoon, Sioux Falls Washington edged out Sioux Falls Lincoln 37-38, to win the Boys Class AA title. Jack Elliott, of SF Lincoln was the individual champion (16:09.73), Bonheur Mvuyekure was Washington’s top finisher in third, followed by four teammates: Shodo Mahamed, 4, Merci Beta, 9, Yonas Sadi, 10, and Christopher Zahn, 11.

There was no dominant team in Class AA Girls, but Brandon Valley prevailed with 99 points, five points ahead of second place Sioux Falls Lincoln. Ellie Abraham, Brookings, was the individual champion in 18:23.48. The highest local finisher was freshman Kylee Bennett of Sturgis, who placed fifth.

The Class AA Combined Champion (Boys plus Girls) was Sioux Falls Lincoln, the Class A Combined Champion was Custer, and the Class B Combined Champion was Ipswich.

(James Giago Davies is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota tribe. He can be reached at skindiesel@msn.com)


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