The Indianola girls and Norwalk boys cross country teams punched their state meet tickets on Wednesday afternoon, both placing third in the Class 4A State Qualifying Meet at Southeast Polk High School. Also advancing to state is Indianola boys sophomore Reed Robbins, who placed 16th individually.
Top-ranked Johnston won the girls team title with an impressive score of 18, followed by No. 13 Waukee Northwest with a 59 and No. 11 Indianola’s 66. The Norwalk girls finished sixth out of eight teams with a 172.
The Indianola girls placed five runners in the top 20, led by senior Gracie Foster’s seventh-place time of 19:53. Junior Jordyn Brown placed ninth, then the freshmen trio of Paige Hoger in 13th, Lilly Hoger 18th and Hadley Erickson 19th. Foster, who qualified for state individually last year, tells KNIA-KRLS Sports that it’s a great feeling to have the whole team going back to Fort Dodge after the Indians placed fourth in last year’s state qualifier at Pickard Park.
“I think a lot of us are thinking about last year – how crushed we were and how sad we were, so it feels really good to come out on the other side of that this year and just be really optimistic for what’s to come next week,” Foster said.
Wednesday’s boys state qualifiers were sixth-ranked Waukee Northwest with a score of 39, No. 5 Johnston (54) and No. 7 Norwalk (69). Indianola placed sixth out of 10 teams with a 158.
Ninth-ranked Warrior senior Noah Buhrow finished strong and nearly won the boys race, placing second with a time of 16:10. Junior Tony Anania and sophomore Teegan Kralik – also ranked in the top 25 – placed 12th and 14th, respectively, with times of 16:37 and 16:49. Sam Parker came in 19th and Grant Wallace was 22nd.
Buhrow says he was going for the individual win, but was happy with second place and even more pleased that the Warriors are making their fifth consecutive trip to state as a team. “We want to perform and get a good placement,” he said, “but at the end of the day we’re happy to go back to state, happy with how we performed today and we’re already looking ahead and getting ready to celebrate our fifth straight trip.”
Robbins took advantage of a new rule that ensures the top five place-winners from non-qualifying teams will advance to the state meet. He finished 16th overall in 16:53 and said he’s excited to get to Fort Dodge and shoot for a personal-best time on a fast course. Indianola sophomores Kiefer Barnes and Paxton Bloom also ran sub-18:00 times, finishing 30th and 33rd.
The Norwalk girls were paced by sophomore Pearl Brown’s 26th-place time of 21:33. Anita Scholten finished 32nd and Maya Butler was 35th.
The Class 4A State Championships are set for Friday, October 27, at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Fort Dodge.