Jacob Simmons needs a little payback in this cross country season.
The Sturgis Brown senior had a disappointing state meet last season, placing 16th after hoping for a top-three finish.
Now, his goal is to place in the top two as he prepares for a collegiate running career. It’s early, but Simmons got off to a good start, winning the Douglas Early Bird Invitational on Friday in the season opener at Prairie Ridge Golf Course.
“Senior year, have to have high expectations,” Simmons said. “Winning would be nice, but I definitely have some tough competition from the east. As far postseason goes, maybe making a Nike Foot Locker run would be cool. I just want to run well and feel good going into my college career.”
Simmons hung back in the pack for the first couple of miles before turning it on late and winning the race in 17 minutes, 23.8 seconds, 12 seconds ahead of Mark Poston of Rapid City Stevens. Poston led four Raiders in the top five, followed by Connor Haaland in 17:44.82, Tom Pfeifle in 17:49.40 and Tristan Christoffer in 17:49.71.
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Simmons spent his summer months training with many of these Raider runners, putting in an average over 40 miles per week. It was his toughest summer of training to date, but something he said is essential as he eventually moves on to college.
He said it wasn’t “crazy mileage," but the effort he gave in every run helped him work on his cardiovascular fitness.
“This is the first summer that I have put in major miles,” Simmons said. “I have just been getting in some good runs and running with the Stevens kids; they are great runners to run with. I’m just trying to stay in shape so I can have a good base coming into the season."
The defending state champion Stevens girls’ team also had an outstanding showing in the first race of the season, with senior Emily Person leading the way in 16:13.71, ahead of teammate Jamie Schweiss in 16:24.63.
Gretchen Blain of Spearfish was third in 16:28.93, followed by Kelsie Herman of Todd County in fourth at 16:42.16 and Allison Green of Sturgis in fifth place in 16:54.80.
Despite her experience, Person said she was nervous going into the race. To counter her nerves, she said she trusted head coach Jesse Coy, ran with her team and had a lot of fun.
“It was the first race of the year, so you always have those first-race jitters, just getting back into it,” she said.
Person said the wind in the early morning race was a factor, so the times weren’t as good as they could have been.
“But you’re really not racing for times; you are just racing for a place,” she said. “You just ran with your team, take the wind part slow and kind of go with it when it is on your back.”
Person is one of the top state returners this season after a fourth-place finish last year at the state meet in Rapid City. She looks for a good year individually, but she said she was more concerned about the chances of her team defending its state title.
“I have just trusted my coach's training, and I hope as a team we can do really well and rally around each other and have a great season,” Person said. “I feel like we are a really deep team, and our coach really knows what he is doing. We’re going to have a really good team, I think.”