Wildcat cross country heads to state

By: 
Charity Wessel

Custer High School’s cross country team had a regional meet last week at Hart Ranch and their athletes had some qualifying races that will send them to the state meet this weekend.
 The varsity girls earned second place (team score 39) and varsity boys placed third (team score 41).  
Custer’s girls varsity had five runners place in the top 20: senior Ramsey Karim placed third in the 5K at 20:09 and Brit Wheeler placed ninth (21:31).
Also qualifying for state at regionals were Custer’s Mattea Marshall (22:07), Keira Alfson (22:12), Sierra Swanson (22:14) and Hailey Woodward (23:08).
Custer’s head coach Karen Karim noted the girls varsity team score “was only three points behind Red Cloud and they’re getting better each week.”
Custer’s boys varsity had six state qualifiers with junior Drew Lehman placing fifth in the 5K (17:38) and senior Gage Grohs placed ninth at 17:59.
Also contributing to the varsity boys third place team score were Kian Rusch  (18:48), Sean Shipp (18:51), Alex Van Horn (19:08) and Kai Rusch (19:56).
Custer’s girls junior varsity team also shined at the regional meet with Kiran Pesicka placing first (23:15) and Ethan O’Connor on the boys junior varsity took second place (19:15).
Coach Karim took a moment to also note the dozens of seniors on the cross country team in saying that many of the athletes have been running in Custer’s program “since sixth graders,” she said.
Also, coach Karim pointed out how senior Alice Sedlacek was previously a team manager, and ran junior varsity this year  and placed second in regionals (23:40).
Junior varsity senior Sadie Moore earned fourth place at regionals (24:10) and Essah Syverson set a personal record with her sixth place (24:50).
Seniors Megan Snyder (27:40.34) and Ella Allen (27:40.66) also ran junior varsity and placed in the top 20.
Boys junior varsity also had nine runners in the top 20: David Lewis (19:59), Jayse Noem (20:22), Austin Drew (20:29), Ayden Dooley (20:40.60), Sam Gaulke (20:40.94), Saylor Rice (20:52), Bohdan Pesicka (21:02.40) and Dalton Marshall (21:02.43).
Coach Karim also noted senior Jackson Drew has been running with Custer’s program “a long time, since seventh grade.” Drew ran junior varsity at regionals (21:21).
Karim said she feels “sad to lose the seniors but looks to place strong and top at state.”
And there are many contributing factors that give her “high hopes for next season’s underclassmen.”
“We have our work cut out for us at state because Belle Fourche and Hill City are strong competition,” Karim said.
Custer’s varsity cross country runs their last meet this Saturday in Huron.

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