The Norwalk boys cross country team finished 2nd to qualify as a team at Indianola, while the Indianola and Norwalk girls squads each qualified individual members to compete at Fort Dodge after running in the qualifier at Pickard Park Wednesday.
The #2 Norwalk boys just missed out on a first place finish scoring 41 points, second behind Johnston’s 39, and had four top 10 finishers. The Warriors were led by Donovan Card in 4th, Jack Brown in 5th, Will Chase in 8th, and Teegan Kralik in 9th. Head coach Chad Larson says he is proud of his team for qualifying to state for the fourth straight year.
“It does feel good to get to this point of the season and reap the benefits of the long journey to get here. Qualifying again this year was very rewarding. Obviously we were targeting first, got edged out by Johnston today. I think we have more in us, and we have a shot at redemption at the state meet. That’s our hope and our plan.”
Indianola athletes Gracie Foster and Emily Naughton finished in 12th and 14th place respectively to qualify individually, as the #17 Indians finished just outside of team qualification in 4th place with a team score of 84 points. Naughton said after the race she knew it would be real close because the field was a talented one, and she would need to stick with the leaders to qualify for her fourth state meet.
“Individually I knew it was going to be a tight pack for me to get in alone. I knew there would be a lot of talented girls, and that if I stuck with them I knew I would be in a good spot.”
Norwalk’s Breelie Mauro finished in 8th place to also qualify individually for the Warriors, as they finished in 5th place as a team with 134 team points.
The class 4A state meet will be Saturday, October 29th beginning at 2pm for the girls and 2:45pm for the boys at Kennedy Park in Fort Dodge.