Wildcat boys second in state

To place second, they needed to catch athletes from Vermillion, and in a few narrow finishes, the Custer Jr./Sr. High School boys cross country team did just that at the 2026 South Dakota High School Activities Association State Cross Country Meet at Hart Ranch Oct. 24. 
Freshman Carter Cooper took the top spot for the Wildcats, finishing fourth with a personal best time of 16:03.4.
“He was actually a little bit dinged up this last week. He had a sore leg, and we were very cautious with him in practice. I was a little bit worried about him. And boy, he was ready to go. He ran a really competitive, really smart race, and I was thrilled to see him place in the top five as a ninth grader,” said Custer head coach Karen Karim. 
After training all summer and running competitively this season, junior Zach Cooper placed ninth with a personal best time of 16:25.6. Last season, he placed 38th. 
“There was nothing that was going to stop him, and I was very proud of his top- 10 finish. I think that’s an incredible place to have him finish,” said Karim. 
Junior Peyton Krueger started in a position with Z. Cooper and just didn’t quite have enough endurance to hang on to it. Even so, he finished with a season-best time of 16:49.8 in 23rd. 
“He was in a mix of a one-second timeframe,” said Karim. “There were six bodies in that mix, so that’s how close everything was. And he was battling for positions there too.”
Seconds behind that was freshman Adam Hohn, who came in 25th in a photo-finish with a personal-best time of 16:52.3. 
“Coming up towards the finish, he was in 26th, and he went racing after that medal. So it was very exciting to see him as another ninth-grader get a medal,” said Karim. 
Finally, juniors Zane Gunnell placed 65th at 18:03.7, and Conner Lundy placed 83rd at 18:28.4. This was Lundy’s first time running in the state meet. 
“I was happy to have him have a good turnout as well,” said Karim. 
Karim was excited to see the boys place second as a team behind Sioux Falls Christian. She added that in the last five or six years in cross country and track, the Wildcats have placed second behind Sioux Falls Christian seven times. 
“Sioux Falls Christian might be our nemesis in this case. They had an awesome team. They have really good runners, and it going to take something special for anybody to knock them off of the top right now,” said Karim. “We considered it a good win for us to get second behind them because we were coming in seeded third behind Vermillion as well, and our kiddos really stepped up, and I was very proud of all of them.”
The Wildcat girls also had a great showing at the state meet. Out of the six runners, only two had ever competed in a state before. 
Leading the way for the ’Cats was junior Mikayla Dennis in eighth-place with a personal-best time of 19:16.6. Karim said last year Dennis placed 67th at the state meet, and her placement is a testament to the hard work she put into training and competing. 
“Individually, Mikayla just had an awesome race. She went after it from the beginning, ran her race and looked incredible. There were a couple girls that had beaten her the week before at region, and she just put the hammer down and went for it from the beginning. And placing inside of that top 10 is pretty spectacular,” said Karim. 
Senior Kiran Pesicka was next across the line for the Wildcats, placing 67th with a time of 21:11.2. Karim said Pesicka’s number one goal jumping into the end of the season was to help the girls team get to the state meet.
“She is not necessarily an experienced cross country racer, and there’s a ton of people. It’s a completely different race where you can’t really even find the people that you’re targeting or using to make sure that you beat so and so like she was able to do the week before,” said Karim. “But again, we wouldn’t have been there as a team without Kiran.”
Junior Makenzi Ham placed 82nd with a time of 21:38.1. 
Karim said Ham was a little discouraged that it wasn’t her fastest race, but “We wouldn’t have gotten there (to state) without her.”
Junior Bree Noble was the fourth runner for the girls, placing 108th at 22:37.8. 
“She had a decent race, and she was our scorer, and so she was important there,” said Karim. 
As for the two junior high members of the team, Karim said it is all about gaining experience. 
Eighth-grader Leah Pomarleau placed 110th at 22:49.2, and seventh-grader Daisy Proffitt placed 115th with a personal best of 23:03.9. 
“Kids, when they’ve run a little bit more, can drop lots of places off their performances from one year to the next,” said Karim.
Going into the state meet, Karim said the Wildcats were predicted to place 14th, and they placed 13th. There were also a lot of teams that didn’t make it to state, which Karim said should be a point of pride for the Wildcats. 
“It’s a different kind of challenge and a very good experience to get to go to state on a team and to race. I hope that benefits our cross country team and our program as a whole into the future,” said Karim. “I will look forward to next year.”
That’s a wrap for the Wildcat cross country season. Karim wanted to thank assistant coaches Gage Winkler and Gordon Drew, who work with the junior high students and encourage students to join the program. She also wanted to thank her assistant coach Mindy Dooley, “who has absolutely been the person that I rely on.”
“She knows the program backwards and forwards. She knows the kids. She’s in the school. She is a huge part of our success,” said Karim. “I would have to put a big thank you out there to my assistant coaches and all the work that they put into this team.”