Girls take 8th, boys 13th at State Cross Country Meet
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
With the girls team finishing in eighth place and the boys team taking 13th place at the Class B State Cross Country Meet, Greg Brown couldn’t have been prouder of the way that his young teams ran.
“I felt we ran very well at the State Meet,” stated Brown, Wolves’ head coach. “All of our athletes went out hard and finished very strong.”
Hayes Feilmeier led the Watford City boys team as he finished the race in 10th place with a time of 18:02.52, which earned him All-State honors.
“With the boys team, we made a huge step toward next year’s State Meet by placing four runners in the top 100,” stated Brown. “Last year, our first runner was 101st and we finished 23rd as a team. This year, we moved up 10 team places and ran well.”
Also placing for the boys team was Logan Gumke, 76th, 20:07.90; Dustin Kleppen, 84th, 20:18.52; John Meuchel, 98th, 20:35.07; Dillon Smith, 112th, 20:56.85; Curtis Lohse, 120th, 21:25.21; Alex Hansen, 124th, 21:36.58; and Reid Brown, 162nd, 23:34.25.
“On the boys side, we have runners coming back that can lead us to a higher finish next year,” commented Brown.
In the girls division, Addison Sundeen paced the Watford City team with a 39th place finish in a time of 17:26.20.
“On the girls side, we finished in 8th place as a team which was against some very good competition,” stated Brown. “The girls team is also looking very strong as a team for next year.”
Also placing for the Wolves in the girls division was Kade Ross, 42nd, 17:31.81; Lea Arndt, 48th, 17:49.35; Bessie Schmitz, 49th, 17:49.79; Jayme Johnson, 66th, 18:15.42; Kristen Stenehjem, 80th, 18:29.68; Kara Wold, 85th, 18:38.71; Tara Loomer, 92nd, 18:56.19; Hollie Griggs, 121st, 19:37.84; and Sarah Newton, 167th, 23:29.37.
“We have a lot of young runners on the team,” noted Brown. “With young runners, I feel they have to experience a full season of cross country before they can accurately set their goals.”
With a young team coming back, Brown only sees good things ahead for Watford City’s cross country program.
“Now that our young runners on both the boys and girls teams have experienced a full season, we are ready to start setting goals for next year,” notes Brown. “I have very high hopes with our youth movement in the next year. We do lose some good seniors to graduation, and it will be tough to lose them, as they have been part of our program since the beginning. So we will be breaking in new leadership next year, but I do feel that we have the leaders on the team. They need to step forward and get the team ready for next year.”