To say Jase Kraft earned the 2013 Class B state cross country championship would be an understatement.
The Wessington Springs senior battled through a leg injury this season and three straight runner-up finishes over the previous three to cruise to the win at Robbinsdale Park on Saturday.
“It was a really fun atmosphere with all the people and it being my senior year and having all the people I’ve known through the years here cheering me on, I got kind of emotional having my last state meet,” Kraft said.
Kraft won in a time of 16 minutes, 55.10 seconds to beat Elkton-Lake Benton’s Quinn Fargen by more than 47 seconds.
Bison’s Daniel Burkhalter, Wall’s Austin Huether and Dell Rapids St. Mary’s Mitch Roemen rounded out the individual top five.
Fargen and Elkton-Lake Benton scored 25 points to better Dell Rapids St. Mary (38) and Philip (45) in the team race. The Scotties’ Nelson Holman took ninth place to lead his team to the third-place finish.
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Burkhalter, a freshman who finished fifth at last year’s state meet, was dealing with his own injury this season and it hampered him down the stretch on Saturday.
“I haven’t really been able to run the past few weeks. I’ve just been biking really hard,” Burkhalter said. “On the second lap my legs just gave out. I didn’t have any kick left when (Fargen) came and passed me. I just didn’t have anything left.”
Still, Burkhalter improved by two spots from last season.
“I’m definitely hoping to win it next year,” Burkhalter said. “I’m going to rest until Jan. 1 and then I’m going to start biking and ease into it and try to get into really good shape by track season and do well.”
The Ipswich girls, led by Macy Heinz (3rd), Tyler Loken (5th) and Tori Moore (6th), won their fourth straight Class B team title in front of Gayville-Volin and individual champion Laura Nelson.
Nelson took fifth last season as an eighth-grader but took control of this year’s race early and led the entire way, bettering her teammate at the 2012 state champion Genevieve Clark for the title. Nelson finished 15:06.03 to Clark’s 15:39.98 for the win.
“I was really surprised and it sure was the toughest race I’ve ever been in,” Nelson said of the win before admitting that it wasn’t part of her plan to jump out to an early lead. “That wasn’t the strategy, actually, but it felt right and so you just go with it and run.”
Philip sophomore Ellie Coyle was the top West River finisher in the Class B girls race in ninth place. Coyle finished the race in a time of 16:22.33.