All Decade Team - Boys Cross Country

You talk about a stacked team, look no further than this one. Custer High School dominated cross country last decade, and this team is proof of that. There are multiple conference championships and regional championships on this team, and even a pair of state champions. It’s a who’s who of cross country excellence, and I’d put this team up against any decade’s best five runners from any class of competition in the state—and I’d win.

 

Cody Herman - Class of 2013 - Herman is a two-time Black Hills Conference (BHC) champion, a two-time regional champion and placed in the top five at the state meet twice (in this decade), bringing home third place in 2010 and second place in 2011. I believe I put Herman on the all-decade team last decade as well for what he had already accomplished in his first couple of years of high school.

 

Logan Burns - 2014 - Burns is the first of our two state champions on the list, as he won the Class A state title his senior year. Burns also won the conference and region meet that year. Burns was third at the conference meet in 2012, and took second at region and state that year as well.

 

Chance Dooley - 2016 - Our other state champion, Dooley, won the Class A state meet in 2015. Dooley placed second at both the conference and region meets that year and was second at the region meet, fourth at the conference meet and ninth at the state meet in 2014.

 

Joe Rush - 2018 - Rush started placing high at meets as early as 2015, when he finished fifth at the conference meet and eighth at the region meet. The following year he placed second at the region meet and third at the state meet before winning both the conference and region meets his senior year. He placed second at the state meet that year as well.

 

Nathaniel Youngblood - 2019 - Youngblood rounds out our team and, like Rush, started showing promise early in his running career, placing eighth at the conference meet and seventh at the region meet in 2016. The next year he was fourth at the conference meet, third at the regional meet and seventh at the state meet. He saved his best year for last, winning both the conference and region meets before placing fourth at the state meet.