Cross Country Dominance! Girls Win Districts, Boys Qualify For State

On one of the coldest days this fall things were heating up at Kelly Park for the 1A/2A and 3A fifth district cross country championships.  After competing in some of the biggest meets in the state this season the Cardinal and Grizzly teams raced in the smallest meet of the year for each team in terms of number of athletes.  Though the numbers were low the stakes were high with a trip to the state championships on the line.  As many already know, the course at Kelly Park is a challenging one.  The teams had already competed there earlier in the season for the Cardinal Classic and were well versed on its challenges.  

The championships were split into four races.  The girls 3A was first on the course followed by the 3A boys, then the 1/2A girls followed by the 1/2A boys.  This meant that the Lady Cardinals were the first team to take on the competition.  Thirty-eight girls competed in the 3A girls race.  Only four schools had enough participants to qualify for team scoring.  Those schools were Soda Springs, Malad, West Side, and Declo.  In addition to those four teams, individual runners from Wendell and Community School also competed.  Throughout the race the Lady Cardinals left little doubt about who would take the top spot as a team.  The girls from Soda dominated the race and the Cardinals won the district team title.  Team scoring went as follows: Soda Springs 18, Malad 37, West Side 90, and Declo 107.  Individually Lizzie Beutler won the district championship with a time of 20:19. The rest of the Cardinals finished as follows India Galloway (3) 20:46, Rebekah Evans (4) 20:54, Ellie Wood (6) 21:22, Mollie Renfroe (8) 22:25, Gracie Moldenhauer (12) 22:32, Courtnee Gronning (13) 22:32, Rosie Harris (19) 23:44, and Mylee White (21) 24:13 

Next up were the Cardinal men.  The Cardinal men faced a slightly deeper field of competitors with a total number of fifty-eight runners from five full teams as well as some individual runners from two additional schools.  The top three boys teams in the district have been duking it out all season long and the scores were tight once again in the district championships.  In this race Malad came out on top with a score of 38, followed by Soda Springs at 43 and West Side at 45.  The other two full teams were well behind the top three with Declo scoring 113 and Wendell 146.  The Cardinals had three top ten finishers with great times.  The Cardinal men finished as follows Landon Moldenhauer (5) 17:32, Kage Kirby (6) 17:45, Degan Stoor (10) 18:12, Dre Lloyd (14) 18:24, Austin Housley (17) 18:42, Jaxson Horsley (18) 18:53, Jonathan Beutler (19) 19:06, Noah Hansen (51) 24:32, and Gimhana Samasiri (54) 25:44.  The Cardinal men did qualify for the state meet and will look to continue to improve this weekend.

Following the 3A races, the smaller schools had their chance to take on the course starting with the girls team.  This was the smallest race of the day by number of athletes and schools.  The two schools competing were Grace and Rockland.  The two schools have developed a small rivalry in the running sports of cross country and track.  This race featured just sixteen runners but had some impressive times.  The Lady Grizzlies cruised to victory in this one, winning the team scoring 20 to Rocklands 36.  The Coleman sisters took the two top spots.  The Lady Grizzlies finished as follows Cally Coleman (1) 19:57, Lily Coleman (2) 21:00, Lilly Gilbert (4) 21:47, Kallie Stoddard (6) 22:20, Breanna Heer (7) 23:36, and Hayden Ball (10) 24:04.  The Lady Grizzlies are the district champs.

Like the 3A’s the small schools boys race was slightly larger than the girls race.  Three schools competed in this race with Grace and Rockland battling for the top spot.  This time Rockland would earn the victory edging out the Grizzlies.  The team scoring was Rockland 25, Grace 32 and Sho-Ban 80.  Of the twenty-five participants Grace had four runners make the top ten.  The Grizzlies finished as follows Adrian Mejia (2) 17:05, Brock Johnson (3) 17:34, Colt Coleman (6) 18:17, Jonah Wilkerson (9) 19:02, Laexin VanGass (13) 20:19, Cutler Andersen (18) 22:16, and Scottie Heer (20) 23:07.  The Grace men's team did qualify for state and will compete for a trophy this weekend.

All four of the local teams performed well at districts and will contend for state titles on Saturday at Eagle Island State Park.  Good luck to all of the runners.