Years of dreams and goals, 11 weeks of preparation, one final test — this is what the Bowman County Cross Country team faced on Saturday as a season of work all came down to about 20 minutes of performance.
Nerves? You bet. But the bulldogs quickly got down to business. The boys brought home the 3rd place trophy, and the girls team placed Runner-Up. In the process, the bulldogs earned 3 All-state honors, as Alex Madrigal placed 13th, Brian Miller 20th, and Lacey Feist 17th.
The day started off as the boys toed the line, knowing New Town was going to be tough to beat, and knowing it was going to be a fight with Rugby, Hillsboro, and familiar foe Beulah-Hazen for the top 5. “In all of our preparation, we knew Rugby was really tough, they run a lot like us, and we had to break up their pack.” Explained Coach Jonathan Jahner. The bulldogs hung tough, outlasting Beulah-Hazen, and Hillsboro, but ending up 26 points behind Rugby, capturing the 3rd place spot out of 49 teams. Individually, the bulldogs were paced by sophomore Alex Madrigal who clocked a very impressive time of 17:11.59, placing him 13th. Behind Alex the pack really began to show its strength. Brian Miller placed 20th in a time of 17:26.15, and within ten seconds the bulldogs captured two more spots, Kamrin Madrigal in 23rd, and Andrew Miller in 24th. Mason Moran finished the scoring for the bulldogs with a time of 17:59. “It’s not very often that you have that tight of a pack at state since there are so many runners; this truly is a special group.” Stated Coach Dakota Wolf. All 5 scorers for the bulldogs finished within 48 seconds of each other, highlighting the parity of the bulldog pack.
Rounding out the runners for the bulldogs, Ethan Fischer finished in 11th, Camden Wokal 122nd, Austin Richard 195th, Benjamin Knopp 232nd, and Noah Wokal in 235th. Nine of the 10 runners for the bulldogs ended their season with personal best times, exemplifying the quality of the day for the Dawgs.
“Historically if you run sub 18:00 you have a good chance to be All-State (top 20), however, it was an extremely deep and talented field.” Explained Coach Jahner. In fact, a total of 265 runners competed in the race.
The girls team was next up, with hopes and dreams of dethroning the returning champions from Hillsboro, but also knowing there would be about 4 teams with the same idea. When the dust settled, the bulldogs came up only 18 points short, as Hillsboro claimed their 6th consecutive state title. The bulldogs now found themselves in a battle for #2, in fact Rugby finished two points behind the bulldogs clinching Bowman County’s Runner-Up position and placing the Panthers 3rd.
Individually it was a very familiar site for the bulldogs, as Lacey Feist continued to lead the bulldogs, finishing in 17th place in a time of 20:02.84. Behind Lacey the packs started to form, Natalie Kempenich and Alexius Miller battled for 25th and 26th places, and Abigail and Mikayla Bartholomay rounded out the scoring in 41st and 42nd. The Dawgs were the first team to finish all 5 scorers, meaning the rest of the work was up to the 6-10 girls. Brooke Peterson ran a very strong race finishing in 56th place, bumping many other team scorers back. Jocelyn Kulseth and Vanessa Fischer finished in 86th and 90th respectively. The bulldogs rounded out the day with Brenna Wokal in 145th and Becki Fuchs in 169th. With 223 runners in the race, it was a very good showing for the girls team.
With the girls jump 5000m race (used to run 4000m), it is hard to compare historical data, but the when the ladies team looks at their final results two major things jumped out to coach Jahner. First of all, the race gap from 1-5 runners was 1:15, meaning there were a lot of quality races, and second of 9 of the 10 runners set personal bests, with one runner typing her fastest time of the year. “I would be hard-pressed to find a better team race that what we ran on Championship Saturday.” Explained Coach Jahner, “We ran hard and left it all out there.”
The bulldogs have now culminated three seasons in a row where both teams have placed in the top 5. “While we are improving, but we still have work to do.” Emphasized Jahner, “Our goals will continue to be state champions.” Coach Wolf added, “These seniors left the underclassmen with a lot of advice and set a great example, it will be fun to see who steps up to the plate next year to fill those roles.”
If the dawgs continue to grow on their successes, that is exactly where they will end up.
