Cross country teams make it to state

In a tight race, the Custer Jr./Sr. High School girls cross country team placed third at the South Dakota High School Activities Association Region 5A Cross Country Meet, punching its ticket for the state meet. 
Lining up behind Belle Fourche, Hill City scored 46 as a team, and Custer scored 48, edging out Rapid City Christian, which scored 50. 
“That was a tight race. Our region is pretty tough in the girls because Belle Fourche is one of the better teams in the state, and then Custer, Hill City and Rapid City Christian are all very evenly-matched teams. It was close,” said head coach Karen Karim. “Bree Noble passed a girl from Rapid City Christian in the last 100 meters, and that was the two-point swing, which puts us two points ahead of them. Otherwise, we were tied with them. I think Kiran Pesicka passed a couple of girls coming in the home stretch or we wouldn’t have even been where we were.”
Mikayla Dennis placed fourth with a time of 20:21. Pesicka placed 11th with a personal best of 21:07. Makenzi Ham also had a season best, placing 15th at 21:19.2. 
“Makenzi had an awesome race too. It was really windy up there, so I only had a couple of personal bests out of everybody. I only had a couple of season bests. So the fact that those two varsity girls did that, that was just enough to put us over the top of Rapid City Christian,” said Karim. 
From there, Noble placed 23rd at 22:35.4, Leah Pomarleau placed 26th at 22:55.7 and Bella Carrier placed 35th at 24:38.9. 
In the junior varsity race, seventh-grader Daisy Proffitt placed third at 23:30, having never run a 5K before. Running a minute faster, she will take the sixth spot in the state race, with Carrier serving as the alternate. 
“That was kind of exciting to have those junior high girls in that JV race step up and run pretty well,” said Karim. “Daisy had a good showing, so she gets the opportunity to compete at state since our team made it.”
Karim said her goal is to give the athletes a final opportunity to compete for a spot, and then she puts the fastest team on the course for the state meet.
Also in the junior varsity race, Bristol Renshaw placed third at 24:11.4, Lorrain Harrison placed eighth at 24:27.8, Dilann Dennis placed ninth at 24:52.6, Sophie Briley placed 10th at 24:58.5, Kendra Thorp placed 11th at 25:45.5, Evelyn Garcia placed 12th at 26:07.4, Holly Nielsen placed 13th with a season-best of 26:16.3, Ava Meduna placed 14th at 26:19.3 and Sara Cochran placed 18th at 27:02.1. 
The Wildcat boys dominated the varsity race with a first-place score of 16. 
“I don’t know that our region is quite as tough on the boys’ side as it is on the girls’ side, but my boys are also a pretty solid team. They looked good and strong,” said Karim. 
Carter Cooper won the race with a personal-best time of 16:12.2.
“The fact that Carter Cooper actually ended up with a personal-best in that wind and raced after the kid from Belle Fourche and beat him by over 10 seconds, that was awesome for him,” said Karim. “He ran a competitive race, and I think he ran a smart race. I’m very excited to see where he ends up this week at state.”
From there, Peyton Krueger placed third at 17:01, Zach Cooper placed fifth at 17:12.4, Adam Hohn placed seventh at 17:20.7, Zane Gunnell placed ninth at 18:01.1 and Easton Dooley placed 13th at 18:42.8. 
“Even though those weren’t season bests, they ran great races all the way down my varsity squad,” said Karim. “It was great to see Adam feeling good because he’s fought a little bit of injury. He’s looking good and feeling good. Zane is coming on and feeling stronger each week. I hope we have everybody ready to go for the state meet.”
In the junior varsity race, Conner Lundy placed first with a time of 18:34.7. That moves Lundy onto the state team, with Dooley as the alternate. 
“He had to fight for that spot since he lost it the week before when Easton won the JV race and had a faster time than him. That’s again how we do that with all things as equal as possible,” said Karim. 
After Lundy, Ayden Dooley placed second at 19:20.4, Austin Drew placed third at 19:29.9, Dustin Pliska placed fourth at 19:49.1, Brooks Wheeler placed fifth at 19:58.4, Jared Cooper placed sixth at 20:15.7, Wesley Bolen placed ninth at 21:46, Dylan Kloos placed 10th at 22:13.4 and Kaedin Rusch placed 13th at 23:50.6. 
“Ideally, we get our best performances on the big stage at the state meet. We’ll see how that goes and how we measure up against the teams from the other side of the state,” said Karim. 
Sioux Falls Christian currently has the top-ranked team for the girls and boys 5K, but Karim said courses are not all created equal. 
“It’s hard to compare,” said Karim. “Our kids have to be ready to compete, go out, race people and forget about times.”