RAPID CITY – Saturday’s South Dakota State Cross Country Meet at Hart Ranch in Rapid City looked a lot like the Lake Region Conference Meet earlier this month.

Northwestern’s Ella Boekelheide won the Class B girls’ individual state championship, ahead of runner-up Madisyn Gellhaus of Ipswich, the same order of finish at the LRC and the Region 1B meet at Webster.

Kimball-White Lake won the girls’ team title, followed by LRC members Ipswich in second with 42 points, Northwestern in third with 43 points, and Warner in fourth with 44 points.

“It’s tough over here,” said Boekelheide of the conference in a phone interview following the meet.

No one was tougher in the B girls’ race than Boekelheide, who led from start to finish.

“I took it out pretty fast, just kind of running my own race, and if someone went with me, they went with me,” Boekelheide said, “but I took it out pretty fast from the gun.”

The junior looked back only once during the race, preferring instead to focus on her own mission.

“I wasn’t too sure what going on back there,” Boekelheide said, “and I was just trying to focus on myself.”

It was the second state title for Boekelheide, who also won the championship as an eighth-grader before back-to-back runner-up finishes the last two years.

“The journey has definitely helped me. I think those two years of building and getting second really helped me kind of relearn my love for the sport and realize that I was doing it because it was a passion of mine and not just for competing,” Boekelheide said. “So, I think that definitely helped and all the hard work paid off, and I’m excited for next year to hopefully keep building on this.”

Ipswich was able to edge their conference counterparts for second in team points, however, its pre-race strategy did not come off as planned.

“We got out about 17 seconds slower than we were supposed to, so we were kind of way behind early,” said Ipswich coach Todd Thorson. “The plan was get out in the middle of the pack. Well, we were towards the back.”

However, the Tigers got stronger as the race wore on and finished with a flurry.

“Our last mile was lights out for all of them,” Thorson said.

That included Gellhaus, who moved up went from 40th all the way to second before the race concluded.

“I just felt that she believed in the plan,” Thorson said, “and she’s a very disciplined runner.”

Other area runners that finished in the top 25 for girls were Dannika Kaup of Potter County in seventh, Warner’s Kennadee Wagner in 10th, Northwestern’s Tara Blachford in 11th, Wolsey-Wessington’s Kendal Uttech in 15th, Herreid-Selby Area’s Brynnly Huber in 16th, Warner’s Kaitlyn Worth in 17th, and Kenna Wolberg in 20th, Ipswich’s Jennay Gisi in 21st and Gracyn Kadlec in 23th, and Highmore-Harrold’s Autumn Fallis in 24th.

And as it turned out, each spot mattered in the tight battle for second place in points.

“People talk about cross country being an individual sport,” Thorson said, “well this really proves that every single runner counts.”

The Tigers are no strangers to the success in the sport and added to their impressive resume on Saturday.

“I feel blessed to be in Ipswich to have kids that are willing to work that hard. They are ultimate team players,” Thorson said. “When they believe in you and you believe in them, what can’t you accomplish as a group?”

Finley McConniel of Freeman Academy-Marion won the Class B boys’ race, while Philip captured the team championship. North Central finished third in team points.

“The kids were so excited to place,” said North Central coach Jenny Roth.

The Thunder were led by Drew Arbach who finished 14th, and Gabe Johnson who was 17th.

Other area runners who earned podium spots included Faulkton’s Korbin Stark who was 15th, and Brooks McPeak of Highmore-Harrold who was 23rd.

This was the highest finish for the North Central boys since the cooperative of Bowdle, Edmunds Central, and Eureka was formed.

“For our boy runners/team, this was the first time they’ve competed at state with the good outlook or possibility to place,” Roth said, “and I’m really happy for them they got that experience today, and proud of how they handled the nerves and how they competed.”

CLASS A

While Aberdeen Roncalli did not have complete teams competing, the Cavaliers made a big impact on the Class A field during the meet.

Roncalli’s Addison Cassidy grabbed a place on the podium after finishing 21st, leading a delegation of five straight Northeast Conference runners to conclude the place-winners. Clark-Willow Lake’s Kamryn Neishem was 22nd, Milbank’s Ashlynn Batchelor was 23rd, Deuel’s Jaycee Hourigan was 24th, and Milbank’s Bianca Berry was 25th.

Cassidy, who won the Region 1A meet last week, had a strong season, saving her best finishes for her last two meets.

“She was just over six minutes at the mile mark and so was Hazel (Kannegieter),” said Roncalli coach Casey Steele. “They went out there and they meant business today and they followed through. To have two ninth graders 21, 29, what a special deal that was.”

Kannegieter clocked a personal best time, just missing the podium.

Steele said his runners’ times were impressive considering the state meet conditions.

“It’s a true cross country course at Hart Ranch,” Steele said. “The surface is a little uneven and rough, and you’ve got these rolling hills to attack, and tight corners, so it was a great experience for the girls today.”

Faith Wiese of Flandreau was the girls’ individual champion, while Sioux Falls Christian won the team crown.

Hill City’s Tate Grabow won the Class B boys’ race. Sioux Falls Christian also won the boys’ team championship.

Top area finishers included Miller’s Pierce Baumberger who was 12th, Milbank’s Bryan Meyer who was 31st, and Jeter Scoular who was 37th, and Sisseton’s Ryder Graff who was 41st.

Roncalli’s Matt Peterson finished 97th.

“It’s kind of a yo-yo right now,” Steele said of Peterson’s result after a strong showing at the region. “I think getting to the state meet was the big race for him.”

Steele is looking forward to seeing what Peterson can accomplish in the future.

“I think the experience of being here and just being a sophomore right now, with a tough field, he’ll handle things differently next year,” Steele said.

CLASS AA

The Aberdeen Central girls placed three runners among the top 40 in the Class AA portion of the meet.

Juna Ramey improved three spots from last year’s meet finishing 22nd. Allie Novstrup was 32nd and Kylee Hanley was 39th.

Golden Eagles coach Eric Pedersen was pleased with his team’s performance. He said Ramey ran among the leaders in the early stages of the race. He gave her a simple message heading into the competition.

“Mental sharpness is really what’s going to make the difference in a race like this,” Pedersen said he told his lead runner. “I think she took that in stride and did a really good job of putting herself up there to start.”

Novstrup and Hanley continued to improve as the season went on.

“That’s a good combo right there. … To be up in the 30s as an eighth-grader, that’s something that can really catapult you going forward,” Pedersen said. “I hope that’s a confidence boost for them. They earned it, too.”

All in all, Pedersen said it was good way to cap off the season for his young squad.

“I heard a lot of positivity today. I didn’t hear much negativity,” Pedersen said. “I saw the grittiness, saw putting ourselves in the spots that we needed to be to go out and compete at the level that we’re at right now.”

As expected, Sioux Falls Lincoln, with three of the top four runners, won the Class AA boys’ team championship. Cole Reilly of Sioux Falls Washington won the individual boys’ title.

Aberdeen Central finished eighth in the team standings, short of pre-meet expectations.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever been more disappointed in an outcome of an event in my coaching career,” said Central boys’ coach Greg Murley. “These kids really did all the right things all summer, all fall, and we just didn’t run well today. Tate (DeVries) ran petty well, but as a group, we just didn’t run well.”

DeVries finished 18th, while Max Nelson was 34th, Carson Urlacher was 55th, Patrick Severson was 56th, and Eston Foss was 64th.

Murley said the team has a lot of solid runners, but for whatever reason, they did not run their best during the biggest meet of the season.

“The program’s had a good year. … When you’re at this level, you kind of want to shine,” Murley said, “and we just didn’t’ come through.”

He said the Golden Eagles got off to a good start in the race, but soon fell too deep into the pack.

“We got out really well. We did exactly want we needed to do, I thought,” Murley said. “That second mile, there just wasn’t something there. When you get there it’s hard to come back from that.”

The squad returns the bulk of its runners, so the future looks bright for the Golden Eagles, who won the Eastern South Dakota Conference championship earlier this month.

“It’s probably more on our end, as the coaching part of it, than their end on performing,” Murley said of Saturday’s subpar results. “We’ll need to figure that our for the future with this group of kids, because they’ll all be back, most of them.”

To see complete state meet results, click on the following link:

https://results.dakotatiming.com