High School Cross-country: Ipswich girls claim fifth state title

The queens of Class B cross-country continued their reign and this time added a precious jewel to their crown.

Ipswich won its fifth consecutive state championship on Saturday and the Tigers claimed the individual title as well. Sophomore Macy Heinz capped an undefeated season and became her school’s first state champion in the sport at the Broadland Creek Golf Course in Huron.

“This means so much to me,” Heinz said. “It took so much time to get here. People see it now and it looks easy. They don’t see all the hard work that’s put into it.”

They also didn’t see that Heinz was in trouble late in the race. Heinz trailed Laura Nelson of Gayville-Volin and had all but conceded the outcome.

“At the two-mile mark, I thought it was over,” Heinz admitted. “I thought I was going to get second. I was hurting bad. I just kind of settled. I was like, ‘Oh, it looks like she’s going to get it.’ “

Heinz kept thinking about her form and the next thing she knew, Nelson was directly in front of her.

“At about 300 left, I realized I caught her,” Heinz said. “I wasn’t paying attention really. But all of a sudden, I’m like, ‘Oh, here she is right here.’ With 200 to go I said, I guess it’s now or never.”

Heinz put the hammer down and cruised past Nelson to win the race going away.

“It didn’t feel too much like a kick, because I was hurting,” Heinz said. “I just tried to open up a little bit. I think I just got an adrenaline rush. I wanted it bad.”

As the Tigers have shown in the past, team titles take team efforts and that was the case again on Saturday. Aleah Steger finished sixth and Tori Moore seventh as the squad won the team championship by 12 points.

“They were really focused. This was the most nervous I’ve ever seen our team,” said Ipswich coach Todd Thorson. “It meant a lot to them. They came and did what they were supposed to do: focus on attitude and effort.”

Moore, a senior, has been around for all five of the state titles and said each one is special.

“They all mean a lot,” Moore said. “There’s a story behind each one. It doesn’t get old.”

The other senior on the squad is Taylor Loken.

“I was definitely nervous knowing it was my last race for cross-country for my high school career,” Loken said. “I just really wanted my team to do as good as they could.”

The impact of Moore and Loken can not be understated. The duo helped to lay the foundation of what has become the gold standard of small school distance running.

“I’m so lucky that I’ve got to be a part of this movement and distance running in my area,” Heinz said. “Without Tori and Taylor who started this, I can honestly say I don’t know where I’d be as a runner. I know I wouldn’t be here, though.”

Now it’s up to the likes of eighth-graders Steger and Taylor Maurer to help carry on the tradition. They should benefit from their role models.

“They are amazing seniors. I couldn’t ask for better teammates,” Steger said. “I just wanted them to have the best senior year ever.”

Maurer knows the torch is now being passed on to other members of the squad.

“It’s scary,” Maurer said. “I want to help the younger ones, too, so we can keep it going.”

She knows that the community will be behind the squad every step of the way.

“We have a lot of people out there supporting us,” Maurer said, “so it’s really good.”

When the Ipswich boys finished fifth, it allowed the Tigers to win the Class B Combined State Championship as well, capping a memorable day all around.

“That was very satisfying,” Thorson said. “We’ve been within a point the last four years.”

It also turned out to be a big day for Northwestern runners.

The Wildcats finished fifth as a team in the girls’ division and then received a third-place finish from Derek Boekelheide in the boys’ race.

Boekelheide, who was 13th a year ago, was running in seventh place early in the race and kept moving up.

“At the end of the race, I wasn’t exactly sure where I’d finish and I just kept picking everyone off,” Boekelheide explained. “Every time I’d pass someone, I’d be like ‘Wow, I’m doing way better than I could have even hoped to have done.’ “

The sophomore came into the state meet motivated after his finish at the region last week.

“I got fifth at the regions and I was pretty disappointed with that, so I kind of wanted to come out and redeem myself,” Boekelheide said. “I had probably my worst race ever at regions and my best race ever was today.”

Jayden Waldner of James Valley Christian slipped past Daniel Burkhalter of Bison down the stretch to win the boys’ race. Philip won the team championship.

Aberdeen Christian finished 11th as a team.

“We were disappointed in how we ran,” said Aberdeen Christian coach David Rohrbach. “We were expecting to do a little better. We haven’t had a ton of experience running on hills. It still doesn’t take away from the season. We had a good season.”

The Knights were led by seventh-grader Matt Grebner, who finished 36th.

“He’s obviously a really good runner,” Rohrbach said. “For a seventh-grader to be able to run so well, it’s pretty remarkable. I thought Hunter (Bauer) ran real well, too.”

Senior leader Tucker Iwerks came in 46th.

“I felt bad for Tucker,” Rohrbach said. “He’s been struggling with injuries. He had a real good year. You can’t let one meet define your season.”

CLASS AA

Aberdeen Central, led by senior Tanner Peltier, finished eighth in the Class AA boys’ division.

Peltier capped off his high school career by taking eighth in a strong field of runners.

“I was happy. That was really good,” Peltier said. “I was hoping for a top five, but eighth will be good.”

Will Lauer of Sioux Falls Lincoln, who led his squad to the team title as well, dominated the field and set a blistering pace. That allowed most of the runners to turn in top times as well.

“I think it was good to have someone that could run that fast,” Peltier said. “It really set the pace for everybody else’s run.”

Central boys’ coach Greg Murley said Peltier ran well.

“Tanner put himself in position to be one of the top guys in this race,” Murley said. “He ran a really smart race.”

Not only did Peltier turn in a personal record time, so did all of his teammates, which allowed the Golden Eagles to improve on their 13th-place finish at last year’s state meet.

“We had them running as fast as we could at the right time of the year and that’s all we can ask,” Murley said.

While Central had a solid showing, Murley said the season does not boil down to just what happened on Saturday.

“I’d be proud of these kids no matter how we finished,” he said. “We can’t base anything on one meet. Our kids have worked really hard this year.”

Murley was especially proud of seniors Peltier and Patrick Woods.

“The things that (Tanner) and Patrick have given to this program, as far as being role models to other kids and doing it right, it means a lot,” he said.

Jasmyne Cooper of Lincoln won the AA girls’ race, while Rapid City Stevens captured the team championship.

Aberdeen Central was 12th as a team, led by Hailey Holland who finished 43rd.

“It was kind of a tough day,” said Central girls’ coach Bill Martens. “We’re not going to let this one meet gauge our season. We had a great season. I’m proud of our kids. Our effort was there.”

Martens is hoping that the meet will serve as a springboard to better things in the future.

“When you have a tough day, you have to turn it into motivation,” he said. “So hopefully, this will help us for the next time out.”

Martens said that cross-country is a sport that involves a lot more than just times and finishes.

“It’s a lot of character,” he said. “I’m proud of the leadership and the hard work the kids put in, and the dedication that they have.”

CLASS A

Madison, led by the first place finish of Emily Hawkes, won the Class A girls’ team championship.

Redfield-Doland’s Nicolette Schmidt was the lone area place-winner, taking ninth. The sophomore usually likes to set her own pace, but that was dictated by Hawkes and a loaded field on this occasion.

“Everyone took off pretty fast,” Schmidt said.

Soon Schmidt found herself in a pack of runners and had to try to pick them off to move up in the field.

“I just was going to try to hang with the group and work my way up,” she said.

Schmidt was able to move up a few spots down the stretch to record a top-10 finish.

“I was just giving everything I had left,” Schmidt said.

Hunter Paulsen of Elk Point-Jefferson edged Luke Julian of St. Thomas More by three seconds in the closest finish of the day in the Class A boys’ race. West Central won the team championship. Miller was fifth.

Aberdeen Roncalli was 15th in the boys’ team points.

“I think everybody actually ran really, really well,” said Roncalli boys’ coach Tim Baustian. “Class A is really good.”

The Cavaliers were led by Noah Knapp who was 60th, followed closely by Will Geyer who was six spots back.

Baustian recognized his seniors Daniel Holmstrom and Zach Hammrich, who concluded their prep careers.

“I do have to give a shout out to Daniel and Zach. I think they ran probably the best races of their life today,” Baustian said. “Instead of sputtering out at the end, they ended as strong as they could possibly be.”

The Roncalli girls were represented by Isabel Litzen and Mary Gutenkauf.

Litzen finished 44th while Gutenkauf was 54th.

“Mary ran the best race of the season,” said Roncalli girls’ coach Lisa Peterson. “Her time was under 17 (minutes); great, great race.”

Peterson said a quick start did not help Litzen’s cause.

“Isabel went out a little fast,” Peterson noted. “I think that hurt her in the end, because her finish wasn’t as strong as normal. Still, (she) had a faster time than she did here when we ran in Huron last time.”

Peterson is excited that both of her standout runners are returning to the squad.

“They’re young,” Peterson said, “and we get to have them back next year.”

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