2012 South Dakota State Cross Country Meet
The 2012 State Cross Country Meet will be worth your $5 gate admission. That’s a fact.
Team match-ups, individuals glory and the wildcard individuals and bubble teams are what makes the state meet exciting for everyone involved. Each class and each gender has its’ stories; season-long plots that began in the early summer months and continued on the roads and trails of South Dakota’s scorching August heat.
What’s left to be seen is how teams respond at the Big Dance, as they say- the 2012 S.D.H.S.A.A. State Cross Country Meet.
Briefly...
Class AA Boys
Sioux Falls Lincoln has won all of the battles this season, but can they win the war?
Jason Wagoner’s S.F. Roosevelt team has been inching closer and closer to the Patriots, who are current ranked #8 in the Heartland Region according to the Running Times Super 25. Of course, Roosevelt wants nothing more to “tri-peat” as Class AA Boys team champions- but that road will be a tough one for the Riders to surpass.
Class AA Girls
State-title lock (if there ever was one) Tamara Gorman of Rapid City Stevens will be competing in the World Triathlon Championships in Auckland, New Zealand about the same time the Class AA Girls take off on Saturday in Huron, South Dakota. Rapid City Central (#7 Heartland) will jump at the chance to take a state championship home, led by a strong up-front charge and capable depth.
Class A Boys
The RunSodak.Com Message Boards is a hot mess over the Class A boy’s race. Will Eagle Butte repeat? What is the Custer injury situation? Will Madison win the big one? This will probably be the best three-way team battle of any of the classes, so don’t miss this race.
Class A Girls
The girl’s race in the A’s is not much more clear. First of all, you have the Spearfish Spartans, last season’s state cross country champions in their first year of moving down to Class A. Then there is Jason Bohl’s scrappy team out in Garretson. Like death and taxes, Blue Dragon girls are always in the hunt at the state meet for a podium spot. Who wins? Maybe neither of these school. Madison and Harrisburg have their eyes on the prize, too.
Class B Girls
Ipswich will have the individual champion and the team championship. Class B’s method of scoring three may have this team under ten points. Not kidding. Not much else to say about this race. Could we see the Tigers perfect score and pull an Adams State circa 1992 (okay, they swept 1-5, but nonetheless)?
Class B Boys
Parker is loaded this season and has held the number one spot in the RunSodak.Com Coaches Poll all season long...and it hasn’t even been close. The individual race might be interesting as Jace Kraft (Wessington Springs) will battle Parker’s Duane Jongeling closely. The last time a Kraft didn’t finish in the Top 3 at a state meet was 1492, the same year Columbus sailed the ocean blue, so we’ll see if they can keep the streak alive.
Full analysis of the top six teams and a complete individual bubble-list can be found in the 2012 RUNSODAK MAGAZINE, available at the state cross country meet and online @ www.runsodak.com.
Article photo by Kernit Grimshaw, South Dakota's #1 Cross Country and Track and Field Photographer