1996 Blue Jay girls cross-country team 'had a reputation'

Sep. 20—JAMESTOWN — Karen (Greenwood) Blattenbauer is expecting the trip down memory lane this weekend to be well worth a flight into Jamestown from Dallas.

Blattenbauer was a member of the 1996 Blue Jay girls cross-country state championship team. The entire team, along with the 1996 boys cross country team, Gregg Greeno, Jim Reisnour and Justin Schweitzer will be formally will formally be inducted into the JHS Hall of Fame at the Homecoming Pep Rally at Jerry Meyer Arena on Sept. 22.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," Blattenbauer said of the induction ceremony. "I haven't seen a lot of these girls in 27 years. I am just happy to be along to celebrate. I am just glad to be included, they could probably have picked any cross-country team from that decade — I am just happy they chose mine.

"It will just be nice to catch up and see where everyone has been and what they've been doing," she said. "And then, pray to God that nobody asks me to run anywhere."

Blattenbauer had a bit of an unconventional entrance into the world of cross-country.

"I played basketball in the fall," Blattenbauer said. "My senior year was the first time Jamestown High School had enough players where you had to try out for basketball and I was the only girl who got cut. I was absolutely terrible at basketball so at the time it was devastating but also, probably what my ego needed.

"Cross-country had already started and I was not in cross-country shape," she said. "It was a very humbling experience to beg Coach (Russ) Schmeichel to be a part of a team that had already started because you had just gotten cut from another team."

Schmeichel honored Blattenbauer's humility.

"Coach Schmeichel is a wonderful coach — a wonderful person," Blattenbauer said. "I probably should have appreciated him when I was a teenager. He did a wonderful job of teaching us on the track, and on the cross-country trails how to deal with life situations.

"I don't know how to put into words how great this team was," she said. "Because it wasn't a team — I got to run with friends every single day. I am sure we were loud and I am sure we were obnoxious but they were fun. We had a great time. We weren't competitive against each other but we were definitely in it to win it together and I think that is the spirit that kind of defines the group."

Blattenbauer was named a captain of the 1996 girls squad. She earned all-state honors in her first year out.

"I have to be honest with you, I couldn't even tell you now how far a race is," Blattenbauer said. "My whole goal was not to let anyone down — just run as fast as I could. I can still remember running up P.V. Hill by the grain elevator that first day and they were all in shape and I was just dying — It was a journey for sure."

It was a journey aided by Schmeichel's vast knowledge of the sport.

"I remember the fartlek runs, out and back runs and on Sundays, (Coach Schmeichel) would do a guess your time run where he'd tell you the course but wouldn't tell you the distance," Annie (Cornell) Hoekstra said. "You could run it at any pace you wanted to you just had to guess what time you would be back by.

"The top five people who were closest — there'd be prizes — like he'd bring t-shirts or something. I was horrible, I would always get it wrong every single Sunday. The only time I would ever win a t-shirt was when he would bring t-shirts for everybody. I still wear that shirt from 1989."

While she may never have won a t-shirt for herself Hoekstra still competed hard, if — for nothing else — for the sake of her teammates.

"Running is hard — it's a lot of hard work so you kind of bond through it," Hoekstra said. "We would run together every day after school and encourage each other on the runs. We were an awesome team and we worked hard and we did great things together."

The Blue Jay boys and girls teams were undefeated in North Dakota meets in 1996. 1996 marked the first time in North Dakota Class A Cross-Country history that the same team had boys and girls champions.

"It was sleeting so it wasn't exactly wonderful conditions," Blattenbauer said in recollection of the '96 state meet. "It was freezing cold but it was freezing cold hanging out with people that you laugh with all of the time who also happened to be some of the best runners in the state."

Blattenbauer's teammates, Jessica (Schweitzer) Thorlakson and Jessica (Neva) Gardner finished first and second at the state meet clocking times of 15:13 and 15:18 respectively. Thorlakson was named to the Eastern Dakota Conference (EDC) all-conference team five times and the Class A all-state team five consecutive seasons. Gardner was named to the all-EDC and all-state teams four years in a row.

Laura Steffan finished ninth at the 1996 championships with a time of 15:58 while Erin Steffan placed 11th at 15:59. Hoekstra placed 12th while Blattenbauer was 17th. Maria Burns and Christina Fox rounded out the Jays' roster. Every Blue Jay runner finished in under 17 minutes.

"We definitely had a reputation as a team," Hoekstra said. "I remember one time we had a meet in Fargo or something and we went to the mall. We must have had our cross-country gear on because even in the mall people were like, 'Oh you are the cross-country team from Jamestown — what do you put in the water there? You win every year!'

"We were awesome because we had an awesome coach and he knew how to make a team successful," she said. "Without him, we wouldn't be getting inducted into the Hall of Fame."

Hoekstra was recruited to the XC team in middle school after Schmeichel watched her run the mile.

"His coaching was so instrumental in my whole life trajectory," Hoekstra said of Schmeichel. "He had a huge role in that because I was the first one in my family to go to college and that's because I went on a running scholarship. Without him as a coach, that might not have gone that way."

Hoekstra was all-conference and all-state from 1995 to 1998. She ran on four of the Blue Jays' state championship teams. She went on to run at the University of Mary.

Blattenbauer also went to college on a running scholarship. She competed in cross-country and track and field at the University of North Dakota.

"I am humbled to be recognized as a part of this team but I am really just lucky," Blattenbauer said. "I stumbled into a group that was already building a dynasty. They had already been conference champs for a while. It was amazing to be a part of a team, run with my friends, have a great culture, have coaches who knew what they were doing and could manage a group of teenage girls and lead us to State.

"Of all the teams I have been a part of, of all the professional teams I have worked with in my career after, I would say the culture that they had was one of the best I've ever seen," she said. "It'll be great to see those people again."