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Williamsburg girls head back to Fort Dodge
Raiders win state qualifying meet team title on home course
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
WILLIAMSBURG — After just missing out on qualifying as a team last season in Class 3A, the Williamsburg girls cross-country team knew the challenge that awaited this season.
Running in the state of Iowa, especially in the higher classes, continues to level up. The Raiders had to match the trend and raise their own level.
“It was hard last year after going for so many years in a row (to state),” head coach Nick Nordheim said. “We knew we were going to have [to] raise our level.”
Williamsburg has worked hard all season to do that, and it all came to fruition as the Raiders took home the team title in its 3A state qualifying meet Wednesday on its home course.
With four ranked teams in the girls’ field, the team race was bound to be close, and it was.
Williamsburg edged No. 8 Ballard 66-68. Center Point-Urbana took the last team state qualifying spot with 73 points.
In such a tight race, every scoring runner, one through five, makes a difference.
That key runner for the Raiders was Leighton Maas, who had a big personal best of 21:02.6, finishing as the team’s fourth runner in 18th.
“All the practices paid off,” Maas said. “I just really went at it hard and didn’t settle in.”
But Maas still knew this was a team effort, as it has been all season as several runners stepped up.
“It was really fun,” Maas said of the race. ”I think just racing with everyone just made it better. We raced as a team and got to do this together.“
Channing Becker finished third, Aubree Wilde 12th and Maddie Gorsh 13th. Abigail Reed rounded out the Raiders’ scorers in 24th.
Wilde’s time of 20:23.9 was another personal best from her breakout performance at the WaMaC meet.
The Raiders will head to Fort Dodge next week, continuing their tradition of heading to the state meet as a team.
“This was really satisfying,” Nordheim said. “For me, I just like to sit back and watch them be happy. They put in so much work and sacrificed so much to be great.”
The 3A girls’ race will be Friday, Oct. 31 at 2 p.m. at Lakeside Golf Course.
The Williamsburg boys came in unranked and, with a top-heavy field, had to put together something special to qualify as a team.
The Raiders were in good position just over a mile in but slowly faded in the second half.
“We had to do something special today,” Nordheim said. “They went out and battled and I was proud of them for giving it a shot.”
Williamsburg finished seventh as a team. Nile Busch led the team with a 23rd place finish in a time of 17:32.5, Marcus Pirkl was 27th.
GIRLS RESULTS
Team Scores
1. Williamsburg 66, 2. Ballard 68, 3. Center Point-Urbana 73, 4. Fort Madison 116, 5. Washington 120, 6. Davenport Assumption 150, 7. Mount Pleasant 152, 8. Central DeWitt 168, 9. Keokuk 231.
Individual
Top 15 — 1. Avery Fedler (Mount Pleasant) 18:59.2; 2. Aaliyah Causey (CPU) 19:06.3; 3. Channing Becker (Williamsburg) 19:13.3; 4. Avilee Miller (Ballard) 19:19.8; 5. Ashlyn Appleby (Central DeWitt) 19:25.1; 6. Avery Rump (Fort Madison) 19:25.7; 7. Kyliee Zylstra (Grinnell) 19:32.7; 8. Honoring Jordge (Ballard) 20:06.6; 9. Quintrie Lee (Mount Pleasant) 20:08.5; 10. Grace Estling (CPU) 20:11.7; 11. Iris Dahl (Washington) 20:15.5; 12. Aubree Wilde (Williamsburg) 20:23.9; 13. Maddie Gorsh (Williamsburg) 20:32.9; 14. Emma Horak (Washington) 20:34.3; 15. Raya Miller (Ballard) 20:38.0.
Williamsburg (66): 3. Channing Becker, 19:13.3; 12. Aubree Wilde, 20:23.9; 13. Maddie Gorsh, 20:32.9; 18. Leighton Maas, 21:02.6; 24. Abigail Reed, 21:37.1; 28. Ella Kleinmeyer, 21:55.9; 30. Edie Axmear, 22:04.6
BOYS RESULTS
Team Scores
1. Central DeWitt 48, 2. Grinnell 62, 3. Davenport Assumption 89, 4. Fort Madison 101, 5. Washington 131, 6. Ballard 144, 7. Williamsburg 155, 8. Burlington 250, 9. Mount Pleasant 258, 10. Center Point-Urbana 259, 11. Keokuk 281, 12. South Tama County 319.
Individual
1. Cadel Conner (Grinnell) 16:09.7; 2. Cole Niemann (Central DeWitt) 16:21.4; 3. Kyle Olson (Central DeWitt) 16:21.6; 4. Adam Wilke (Central DeWitt) 16:23.1; 5. John Murphy (Assumption) 16:33.5; 6. Liam Crites (Grinnell) 16:38.9; 7. Barrett Jesina (South Tama) 16:39.1; 8. Aden Wolfe (Grinnell) 16:43.9; 9. Silas Hulett (Mount Pleasant) 16:44.2; 10. Isaac Sandquist (Grinnell) 16:44.8; 11. Andrew Rees (Washington) 16:46.4; 12. Riley Tripp (Fort Madison) 16:49.5; 13. Leo Knox (Assumption) 16:51.3; 14. Hunter Wiegand (Fort Madison) 16:51.6; 15. Austin Vance (Ballard) 16:54.9.
Williamsburg (155): 23. Nile Busch, 17:32.5; 27. Marcus Pirkl, 17:42.4; 32. Coline Reed, 18:06.3; 22. Finn Brummel, 18:07.8; 40. Brevin Zirkel, 18:22.2; 43. Charlie Koons, 18:33.5; 48. Hayes Arwine, 18:42.6
