Huskies headed back to the state cross-country meet

Highland is headed back to Fort Dodge after winning its state-qualifying meet for the second straight year.

The eighth-ranked Huskies had all five of its scoring runners finish in the top 20, and they won Monday?s Class 1A state-qualifying meet at Wildwood Park with 59 points.

Sophomore Evan Mahler took second place to lead the Huskies. He crossed the finish line in 15:43, 25 seconds behind champion Ben Friederichs of Durant.

Senior Matt Eden placed seventh in 15:49. Freshmen Tucker Hall and Keiffer Sexton finished 15

^th

and 16

^th

, respectively. Hall crossed the finish line in 16:33, with Sexton one second behind. Senior Zach Popham came in 19

^th

in 16:46 to round out the scoring.

Junior Josh Brase finished 22

^nd

in 16:54, and senior Luke Mahler was 50

^th

in 17:41.

IMS senior Cody Miller also qualified for the state meet individually, taking fourth place in 15:48. Miller started the race a little faster than usual and found himself in 12

^th

place half a mile into the race. By the mile mark, he moved up to seventh, and he remained there until his final kick, when he passed three runners to finish fourth.

Miller led IMS to a ninth-place finish at the meet. Sophomore Kirby Shetler came in 12

^th

in 16:20. Sophomore Jacob Valov finished 61

^st

in 18:29, and freshman Jacob Schmieder was 76

^th

in 19:05. Sophomore Kobi Russom?s 104

^th

-place finish in 22:33 rounded out the scoring. Sophomore Rex Yoder came in 107

^th

, and junior Richard Deming was 111

^th

.

The IMS girls took eighth place at the meet with 237 points. Sophomore Renee Buckwalter came in 18

^th

in 16:40 to lead IMS, and sophomore Riley Schmieder crossed the finish line 18 seconds later in 24

^th

place. Senior Camila Segar finished 58

^th

in 19:16. Junior Vesna Zunic came in 90

^th

in 22:54, and freshman Summer Schrock was 95

^th

in 24:09.

The two Highland girls running at the meet ? sophomores Bridget Murphy and Amber Bean ? finished 47

^th

and 49

^th

, respectively. Murphy clocked a time of 18:42, and Bean crossed the finish line five seconds later.

The Highland boys? cross-country team and IMS? Miller will compete at the state meet this Saturday at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Fort Dodge. The meet begins at 11 a.m.