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Fedler finishes first in 3A state qualifier
Mount Pleasant, Washington send three runners to state meet
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
The moment still isn’t too big for Avery Fedler.
The Mount Pleasant freshman phenom trailed briefly to start the Class 3A-5 Girls State Qualifying Meet on Wednesday. Fedler quickly overtook Center Point-Urbana’s Aaliyah Causey and won the race in 18 minutes 59.2 seconds, just over seven seconds faster than Causey’s second place time.
“I think I was pretty relaxed for the most part,” Fedler said. “I think that’s a big part of why I did pretty well is I just was really focused on being more relaxed and just having rhythm and letting my strengths do the work.”
Fedler’s latest achievement comes less than a week after she captured the girls SEC title on Mount Pleasant’s home course. She beat out Fort Madison’s Avery Rump by nearly 24 seconds to win that meet.
Mount Pleasant sophomore Quintrie Lee will join Fedler at state after a ninth-place finish at 20:08.5. Lee said there were some nerves going into Wednesday’s race, but now has her eyes set on finishing under 20 minutes at state. She placed 63rd overall as a freshmen last season.
Mount Pleasant finished seventh in team scoring with 152 points. Nelle Peterson finished 36th overall. Molly Baker took 52nd. Summer Winget finished 62nd.
The Panthers will be represented on the boys side by Silas Hulett. The junior said he felt sick with anxiety before Wednesday’s race, but remembered some words of encouragement from his coach, and found his groove to finish ninth in 16 minutes, 44.2 seconds. Hulett reached the state meet for the first time in his career.
“He was telling me that I need to just run my own race just like I always do because I haven’t had a problem then” Hulett said. “I just thought about that, told myself that I can do it and right after that it went away, and right when that gun went off I was off to doing my own thing and running good.”
Mount Pleasant finished ninth in team scoring for the boys race. Ben Leishman took 49th. Payton Wilson took 58th. Max Heater took 69th. Jeremiah Aguma finished 73rd. Clark Peterson took 76th and Oliver Rynders finished 80th.
Andrew Rees will represent the Washington boys team in Fort Dodge after qualifying in 11th place Wednesday. Rees finished the race in 16 minutes, 46.4 seconds.
Rees captured the SEC individual title for the second straight season and will make his third appearance at state. He finished last year’s 3A race in 13th.
“I’ve been able to practice what I did at our home meet a few other times,” Rees said. “And then with conference, conference was good. So I think I have experience both running behind people and then running out alone. So I’m going to hopefully use that for state.”
The Washington boys team took 5th in team scoring Wednesday. Jack Shepherd came in 21st. Ethan Hotchkiss and Sawyer Tschantz finished 30th and 31st, respectively. Parker Tschantz finished 38th. Teag Miller was 46th and Xavi Recendez finished 65th.
Washington also had a pair of girls qualify for the 3A race. Iris Dahl placed 11th at 20:15.5 to earn a spot at state for the fourth straight season.
Dahl said she felt a bit behind after missing the SEC meet due to injury, but remained excited about qualifying and is focused on preparing for another strong outing in Fort Dodge.
“I think I just have to mentally lock in,” Dahl said. “Just know I can do it, and I’ve been working all year and that I just have to focus on myself, not anyone else, and just try my hardest.”
Dahl will be joined at state by Emma Horak. The junior finished Wednesday’s race in 20 minutes, 34.3 seconds to take 14th place.
Horak ran in last season’s state meet after Washington qualified as a team. She has improved even further this season, qualifying individually and finishing fourth at the SEC meet last week.
“I’m proud of myself,” Horak said. “We put in so much work throughout the season. This was our goal since Day 1, since preseason, and I’m just happy we got to prove our hard work.”
Washington placed 5th in team scoring. Kora Miller finished 21st overall. Angeline Anderson was 31st. Ellie Van Der Molen took 48th. Allie Wulf and Zully Aranda Terrones finished 54th and 55th, respectively.
The 3A state races are set for Oct. 31 at Kennedy Park in Fort Dodge. The girls race will begin at 2 p.m. and the boys race will start at 2:45 p.m. The award ceremony for both races will follow at 3:30 p.m.
GIRLS TEAM STANDINGS
1. Williamsburg: 66 points
2. Ballard: 68
3. Center Point-Urbana: 73
4. Fort Madison: 116
5. Washington: 120
6. Assumption: 150
7. Mount Pleasant: 152
8. Central DeWitt: 168
9. Keokuk: 231
BOYS TEAM STANDINGS
1. Central DeWitt: 48 pts
2. Grinnel: 62
3. Assumption: 89
4. Ft Madison: 101
5. Washington: 131
6. Ballard: 144
7. Williamsburg: 155
8. Burlington: 250
9. Mt Pleasant: 258
10. Center Point-Urbana: 259
11. Keokuk: 281
12. South Tama County: 319
