South Winneshiek claims its first girls’ cross country state title

FORT DODGE — Trying to count jerseys at the state cross country meet is an almost impossible task.

So many schools. So many people get in the way.

“Plus, when you get all of those individuals getting pulled out (in the displacement scoring method), it’s tough,” South Winneshiek co-coach Kevin Kearney said.

So he simplified things:

“Hey, let’s just go do our best, and you can’t control what everybody else does anyway,” he said.

The Warriors’ best was good enough.

South Winn earned its first girls’ cross country state championship Saturday, scoring 104 points and outdistancing runner-up Logan-Magnolia by 17.

“It’s really cool,” said junior Billie Wagner, who finished fourth overall. “We’ve been in the mix all year.

“Everybody did what they were supposed to do. We knew that if somebody wasn’t 100 percent, others were there to pick up the slack.”

Calamus-Wheatland freshman Noelle Steines (18:20) and Turkey Valley senior Jalyssa Blazek (18:36) ran the two fastest 1A times in state-meet history.

Steines’ effort was fifth best in all classes this weekend.

“I wasn’t sure how she was going to execute her race,” said Blazek, who completed a career than featured four top-six state finishes. “I decided to get out and go with her as long as I could.”

Blazek and Wagner led a parade of five Gazette-area top-10 finishers. North Linn’s Meghan Wheatley was sixth, Haley Meyer of Lansing Kee (last year’s champion) was seventh, Grace Lidgett of North Tama was 10th.

Wheatley, a sophomore, didn’t get to run at state last year due to a COVID-19 incident on her team. Then, after the season, she battled a medical condition in which her weight dropped to 72 pounds.

She proved again Saturday that she is back to full strength.

“I told myself there’s nothing left to save anything for,” Wheatley said. “This is the last meet of the season.”

This was the last of many, many times that Upper Iowa Conference rivals Blazek, Wagner and Meyer will run against each other. Blazek and Meyer are seniors, Wagner a junior.

“It’s going to be really weird not having them around next year,” Wagner said. “It seems like one or both of them are at every meet we run at.”

South Winneshiek’s next two runners — Eryn Sabelka and Josie Tieskoetter — were 36th and 37th, but after non-team individuals were thrown out, scored 17 and 18.

Maquoketa Valley earned runner-up honors in the boys’ team competition, riding a 9-12 finish by Cy Huber and Nolan Ries to a 112-point total. Guthrie Center ACGC won it with 75.

“I thought we could compete with them based on district times,” Huber said. “We did the best we could. We wanted to improve on our times from last year, and we did that.”

Earlham’s duo of Jayden Dickson and Dominic Braet ran 1-2 in 16:06 and 16:08. Huber finished in 16:56, Ries in 16:59.

Iowa City Regina finished sixth in the girls’ race, eighth in the boys.

North Linn’s girls were eighth, North Tama ninth.

Cascade’s boys placed 13th.

CLASS 1A STATE CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

At Fort Dodge (Lakeside Golf Course)

GIRLS RESULTS

Teams — 1. South Winneshiek 104, 2. Logan-Magnolia 121, 3. Fort Dodge St. Edmond 167, 4. Hudson 170, 5. Pekin 177, 6. Iowa City Regina 204, 7. Sumner-Fredericksburg 219, 8. North Tama 226, 9. North Linn 227, 10. Woodbine 232, 11. Earlham 235, 12. Mason City Newman 255, 13. Wapsie Valley 257, 14. Council Bluffs St. Albert 263, 15. Guthrie Center ACGC 267, 16. Central Decatur 368.

Individuals — 1. Noelle Steines (Calamus-Wheatland), 18:20; 2. Jalyssa Blazek (Turkey Valley), 18:36; 3. Nora Peterson (Alta-Aurelia), 19:13; 4. Billie Wagner (South Winn), 19:20; 5. Madison Sporrer (Logan-Magnolia), 19:30; 6. Meghan Wheatley (North Linn), 19:34; 7. Haley Meyer (Lansing Kee), 19:38; 8. Addison Grady (Hudson), 19:42; 9. Hillary Trainor (Sumner-Fred), 19:44; 10. Grace Lidgett (North Tama), 19:50; 11. Courtney Sporrer (Logan-Magnolia), 19:59; 12. Rylee Dunkin (Twin Cedars), 20:06; 13. Greenlee Smock (Lynnville-Sully), 20:09; 14. Holly Beauchamp (Bellevue Marquette), 20:12; 15. Jolee Mesz (Lawton-Bronson), 20:15; 16. Elie Tuhn (Baxter), 20:22; 17. Hunter Jones (North Cedar), 20:26; 18. Stefi Beisswenger (Audubon), 20:29; 19. Preslie Oswald (Manson-NW Webster), 20:30; 20. Olivia Spurling (Earlham), 20:36.

BOYS RESULTS

Teams — 1. Guthrie Center ACGC 75, 2. Maquoketa Valley 112, 3. Earlham 134, 4. Valley Lutheran 161, 5. Pella Christian 178, 6. Bellevue 198, 7. Central Decatur 199, 8. Iowa City Regina 202, 9. Woodbine 234, 10. Fort Dodge St. Edmond 241, 11. Ogden 255, 12. Central Springs 263, 13. Cascade 297, 14. Council Bluffs St. Albert 305, 15. Mason City Newman 307, 16. Columbus Community 314.

Individuals — 1. Jayden Dickson (Earlham), 16:06; 2. Dominic Braet (Earlham), 16:18; 3. Isaac Natvig (Valley Luth), 16:23; 4. Trevin Suhr (ACGC), 16:38; 5. Payton Griebel (Bellevue), 16:40; 6. Bryce McDonough (Central Springs), 16:46; 7. Ethan Loutzenheiser (Madrid), 16:48; 8. Colin Lillie (St. Albert), 16:54; 9. Cy Huber (Maq Valley), 16:56; 10. Patrick Heffernan (Boyer Valley), 16:58; 11. Isaiah Kruckman (South Winneshiek), 16:59; 12. Nolan Ries (Maq Valley), 16:59; 13. Bryson Grove (English Valleys), 17:00; 14. Aidan O’Neil (Regina), 17:01; 15. Noah Valenzuela (East Buchanan), 17:10; 16. Aaron Lursen (St. Edmond), 17:18; 17. Andrew Mahaffey (ACGC), 17:19; 18. Aiden Onken (Bellevue), 17:20; 19. Cody Gilpin (Missouri Valley), 17:20; 20. Doug Berg (Nodaway Valley), 17:22.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com