Oct. 14—FREEMAN, S.D. — Mitchell Christian cross country came close to sweeping the Region 3B cross country meet individual and team titles at a cool, wet Valley View Golf Course on Wednesday.
For the fourth year in a row, the MCS boys claimed the team title, led by race winner Silas Holdeman. MCS also had the winner of the girls race, Laura Nemec, but came in second place in the team standings.
The top-three teams and the top-20 individuals from each region advance to the Class B cross country state meet, which is set for Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Hart Ranch Golf Club in Rapid City.
En route to the boys team title, MCS placed all five of its runners in the top 15 overall. Silas Holdeman powered the effort from the front, crossing the finish line first in 16 minutes, 11.23 seconds. He was 12 seconds ahead of second-place teammate Luke Mentele (16:23.22), who was also nearly 20 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
The third runner to factor into the Golden Eagles' team score was Sawyer Holdeman (17:29.87) in ninth, with Luke Atnip (18:07.68) and Brady Asbenson (18:10.10) in 14th and 15th, respectively.
Freeman was second to MCS in the standings, also putting three runners in the top 10 with Lane McCune (17:00.19) in fifth, Luke Miller (17:08.88) in eighth and Collin Randall (17:54.66) in 10th.
Avon was the third team qualifier, led by a sixth-place finish from Rance Kuhlman (17:03.44) along with Cale Cooper (17:58.44) in 11th.
Other runners rounding out the top 10 were Sanborn Central/Woonsocket's Jackson Wolter (16:42.19) in third, Wessington Springs' Carson Clements (16:47.76) in fourth and Kimball/White Lake's Darron Moeller (17:04.56) in seventh.
Additional top-20 boys finishers to qualify for the state meet included Tripp-Delmont/Armour's Andrew Bitterman (18:03.47, 12th place) and Taite Olson (18:51.89, 20th), Kimball/White Lake's Alex Ekstrum (18:07.23, 13th), Burke's Jase Jons (18:14.67, 16th) and Kamrin Liewer (18:29.56, 17th), Scotland's CJ Bjorum (18:30.68, 18th) and Gregory's George Timanus (18:49.23, 19th).
On the girls side, Nemec's time of 19:43.39 was a half-minute ahead of second-place Lily Baker (20:13.35), of KWL.
For the Wildkats, Alli McCord (20:26.46) was seventh and April Skluzak (20:32.69) was ninth, giving KWL a winning total of 12 points to MCS' 21 points. Serenity Davis (21:09.33) was also 12th for KWL, which won the Region 3B girls team title for a third-straight year.
Lerae DeLine (20:50.25) was 11th, while Amy Henderson (21:36.07) was 16th for the Golden Eagles.
Burke was the third team qualifier for the region behind an eighth-place effort from Alexis Kehn (20:28.86). Grace Steffen (21:41.05) and Jordyn Zeisler (21:48.21) also cracked the top 20 individually for the Cougars in 17th and 20th, respectively.
Rounding out the top-10 places were SCW's Emrie VonEye (20:16.57, third place), Scotland's Elle Hlavac (20:20.69, fourth), TDA's Jordan Chessmore (20:24.59) and Lyndsey Chessmore (20:25.84) and Hanson's June Abbey (20:39.22, 10th).
Additional top-20 girls finishers to qualify for the state meet included Menno's Zoe Schaeffer (21:16.12, 13th), Freeman's Finley McCune (21:34.02, 14th) and Ava Schultz (21:44.45, 18th), Gregory's Avery Birkel (21:35.04, 15th) and Scotland's Mina Bjorum (21:47.51, 19th).
IRENE, S.D. — A fourth-place finish by Canistota's Caleb Schroeder led the results for area runners at the Region 2B cross country meet at Glenridge Golf Course.
McCrossan's Willow Fischer won the boys race in 17:24.7, while two runners from Sioux Falls Lutheran completed the top three in front of Schroeder (18:06.7).
Sioux Falls Lutheran scored 27 points, edging out Canistota's 28 for the region team title.
Alongside Schroeder, Elijah Voorhees (19:06.4) was 10th, and Jaxon Puetz (19:20.6) was 14th to round out the Hawks' team score. By way of the team's second-place finish, Miles Belt-Hanson (20:27.4) also qualified.
In the girls race, Howard was the only Mitchell-area school to field enough runners for a team score, coming in sixth. Individually, Paige Mentele (21:40.5) was seventh, and Taya Wettlaufer (22:33.2) was 13th for the Tigers.
Canistota's Gabbie Eichmann (22:23.8) was 11th as the only other Mitchell-area qualifier to the state meet.
GETTYSBURG, S.D. — In the Region 4B cross country meet at the Gettysburg Country Club, two boys runners from Lyman earned qualification to the state meet.
Jude Miller (17:33.6) was 10th, and Uriah Moran (17:58.9) was 17th for the Raiders in the boys race, which was won by North Central's Drew Arbach (16:26.3).
Lyman nearly earned team qualification, coming in fifth as a squad. However, the Raiders' 45 points were level with fourth-place Gettysburg and just behind third-place Crow Creek at 40 points.
There were no Mitchell-area top-20 finishers in the girls race.