State Cross Country: Cyclone girls improve to 4th in Class 3A; best finish since 2006
FORT DODGE (Nov. 2) -- It was still one step short of their ultimate goal, but the Harlan Community girls cross country team left Saturday’s state meet feeling happy and a little bit vindicated.
One year after finishing eighth at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course, HCHS placed fourth out of 15 teams in Class 3A with a score of 168, trailing only Ballard (57), Dallas Center-Grimes (80) and Dubuque Wahlert (125) in the final standings.
It was the Cyclone girls’ highest state meet finish since the state runner-up team of 2006. Senior Lucy Borkowski paced the squad in 19th place out of 129 girls, the highest individual finish by a Harlan girl since Jess Feldman was 11th in 2012.
HCHS had its eye on a top-three finish for much of the year, which would have earned a trophy and a spot on the clubhouse balcony, but the team left Fort Dodge with no regrets.
“It’s a little bittersweet, but we’re all pretty happy with our performance,” said HCHS coach Doug Renkly. “We always say it’s a hard place to walk away from feeling good about yourself, but I think everybody really does feel pretty good about how they ran and their times today are all real good. Our focus has been absolutely incredible all week long. The preparation that went into this week is probably as good as I’ve ever seen.”
Five Cyclone girls who competed at state last year ran on Saturday and the improvements across the board were staggering. Combined, those same five runners cut 220 places and five minutes, 50 seconds compared to the same course a year ago.
Borkowski has been the Cyclones’ lead runner all year and did so again by placing 19th (matching her 3A ranking) with a personal-best time of 19:33. Compared to last season, she improved by 76 places and 1:50.
Borkowski noted that this year’s team entered the state meet feeling more confident and capable than in 2018. “We wanted to come back and get a little revenge. We had a little fire in us,” she said.
Abby Alberti, the only other senior on the squad, finished 41st in 20:08. Sophomore Kaia Bieker was close behind in 47th (20:14), junior Liv Freund was 55th (20:26) and junior Abi Albertsen rounded out the team score in 70th (20:49). Junior Brecken Van Baale, competing in her third state meet, finished 77th (20:56) and junior Olivia Anderson was 85th (21:01).
“It feels really good,” said Alberti. “We’ve worked so hard for this and it’s a big improvement from our eighth-place finish last year, so I’m proud of that."
Saturday wrapped up an outstanding campaign for the Cyclone cross country program. The HCHS girls won eight meet titles, including a second straight Hawkeye Ten crown and state qualifying meet banner prior to Fort Dodge. The boys peaked at the right time and narrowly missed a conference title and team state berth on the short end of tiebreakers. Trey Gross provided the biggest highlight with his seventh-place individual state medal (see separate story).
2019 State Cross Country Championships • Lakeside Municipal GC • Ft. Dodge • Nov. 2
Class 3A Girls Results
Team Standings: 1. Ballard 57, 2. Dallas Center-Grimes 80, 3. Dubuque Wahlert 125, 4. Harlan Community 168, 5. Bishop Heelan 193, 6. Center Point-Urbana 198, 7. Solon 227, 8. Pella 236, 9. Decorah 240, 10. Grinnell 240, 11. Spencer 245, 12. Norwalk 255, 13. Charles City 269, 14. Glenwood 308, 15. ADM 321.
Top 3 Medalists: 1. Adrianna Katcher (CP-Urbana), 18:29; 2. Shewaye Johnson (Ballard), 18:40; 3. Paityn Noe (Ballard), 18:44. Also: 6. Amber Aesoph (Heelan), 18:49; 14. Braelyn Baker (Creston), 19:16.
HCHS Results - 19th: Lucy Borkowski (sr.), 19:33.6; 41st: Abby Alberti (sr.), 20:08.1; 47th: Kaia Bieker (so.), 20:14.1; 55th: Liv Freund (jr.), 20:26.5; 70th: Abi Albertsen (jr.), 20:49.9; 77th: Brecken Van Baale (jr.), 20:56.9; 85th: Olivia Anderson (jr.), 21:01.1. (129 runners)