Girls cross country is 5A champions

By: 
Gray Hughes

Editor's note: this story has been updated since the print version to reflect the change of the start times at the state meet.

 

It’s another magical season for Hill City Cross Country as the girls team won the Region 5A championship with freshman Abby Cutler winning individual champion, while the boys are sending three team members to the state meet.

All of this comes after the Region 5A meet Oct. 15.

“Our girls cross country team was the Region 5A champions,” said head coach Joe Noyes. “These six ladies won the region meet and qualified for the state meet. They also all placed in the top 20 individually.”

The girls won the team title with 15 points.

The girls were:

1. Abby Cutler (Region 5A individual champion)

3. Nancy Falkenburg Brown

5. Jazzla Hutto

6. Ryken Falkenburg Brown

8. Jaelyn Peters

13. Lillie Ross

“On the boys side, we had the most qualifiers we have ever had for the boys since I have been the head coach,” Noyes said. “As a team we had five boys run, and we placed fourth overall as a team.”

The boys were able to improve to fourth place this year from seventh place last year.

The results for the boys are as follows:

6. Luke Rupert (state qualifier)

13. Tate Grabow (state qualifier)

16. Leighton Aves (state qualifier)

36. John Ciluaga

42. Connor Basely

This year, in the girls junior varsity race, there were five girls who ran for the Rangers because, as Noyes put it, “We can only have six girls run on (the) varsity squad.”

“These five ladies ran brilliantly in their last race of the season, and all five placed in the top seven,” Noyes said. “Plus, going first, second, third and fourth. Our first three runners in the JV race would have qualified for state individually had they got to race in the varsity race. Those three ladies would have placed 18th, 19th and 20th, which would qualify them for state. It’s a pretty special experience and culture of a program when its tougher to make your own team than it is to make it to the state meet.”

The five girls who ran for the JV team are as follows:

1. Kadyn Comer

2. Natalie Hanka

3. Jordan Duprey

4. Azure Aves

7. Naiya Ginsbach

Noyes said he cannot wait to see all of the fans at the state cross country meet  Oct. 24 at Hart Ranch.

The girls run at 2 p.m., and the boys will run at 2:30 p.m.

“Please be there and support and cheer on all the runners and especially the rangers in a positive and successful way,” Noyes said. “Remember: you can run around the course and cheer for runners, but you cannot run next to them or provide any competitive advantage while they are racing besides cheering. But let’s get crazy and have everybody there to help support our Ranger men and women.”

User login