Four-time champs Peterson, Barrett top girls cross country moments since 1984
• Editor's Note — Sports Editor Roger Merriam has spent the past 38 years covering high school sports for the Public Opinion. In an ongoing series, he will look at the top 10 moments/athletes from the variety of sports he has covered during his tenure that started in December of 1984. This story includes the top 10 high school girls cross country moments.
10. Estelline's Jeni Ching adds her name to the list of area standouts
Area runners won six of the seven state B girls cross country championships from 1995 through 2001, including the one Ching won in 2000.
Ching, who was also a two-time state champion in the Class B girls' 800-meter run in track and field, later ran at North Dakota State University.
Ching came real close to winning four state titles in cross country, finishing second behind Arlington standout Kristin Peterson in 1998, second behind Edmunds Central's Jenny Aman in 1999 and third behind former Summit standout and later NDSU teammate Melinda Zirbel as a senior in 2001.
9. A state title and another individual champion for Arlington
As you can tell be the main headline, there's going to more to come on Arlington's Kristin Peterson.
She was the leader of the 1995 Arlington team that captured the state Class B championship. Peterson won the 3,000-meter race in 11 minutes and 20.7 seconds.
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Teammates Susan Au and Stacy Walter added top-20 finishes. Au was 17th in 12:19.5 and Walter 19th in 12:20.1.
Linda Groon of Arlington won the 1986 state B individual championship.
8. Deubrook Area climbs to the top of Class B
Longtime Deubrook coach Don Ray led the Dolphins to state Class B boys cross country titles in 1998 and 1999 and accomplished another milestone when Deubrook Area's girls captured their first state title in October of 2018 at Yankton Trail Park in Sioux Falls.
Senior Josie Olsen, a state runner-up the previous two years, placed fourth and her eighth-grade sister Ellie ninth to lead the Dolphins to the title. Andrea Vandermeer, Shaylee DeBeer and Mattie Nepodal also ran for Deubrook Area.
“Fortunately for us, we had three runners in before anybody else had three in. That makes a big difference,” said Ray.
7. The Zirbels and state titles for Summit and Dakota Hills
In the past 20-25 years, 10 daughters of Ferdy and Susan Zirbel have spearheaded a run of success for the high school girls cross country teams from Summit and now Dakota Hills (Summit, Waubay and Wilmot).
Oldest sisters Melinda, Nicole and Danielle finished first, second and fifth to lead Summit to the state Class B girls title in 2001 at the Elks Country Club in Rapid City.
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"We knew Melinda would be at the front of the pack and we fully expected her to win it," said Summit coach Lori O'Farrell. "We knew someone would have to step up and make a big contribution for us to win. All the girls ran very well today. They get all the credit for it too."
Three more Zirbel sisters (Cassandra, Courtney and Alicia) each were members of Summit’s third-place team in 2007. Whitney Zirbel also ran for Summit before Victoria Zirbel, a five-time state medalist, and another sister Madison helped lead Dakota Hills to the 2019 state B title at the Broadland Creek Golf Course in Huron.
The team just so happened to be coached by their mother Susan.
“When I looked at the results from the five regions and how all the teams looked, I knew it was going to be close,” said Susan Zirbel. “I told the girls that it was going to come down to the team that showed up on Saturday.”
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6. Watertown's Tammy Harding goes out in style
In the early 1990s, Harding became the leader of Watertown High School's girls cross country team and made her mark by winning the state Class AA championship as a freshman in the fall of 1990.
Her quest for more was curtailed by a lengthy illness that was eventually diagnosed as a form of mononucleosis. She slipped to sixth in 1991, sat out the entire high school track season in 1992 and then finished ninth in the state cross country meet that fall.
Battling doubts and some critics, she came up big as a senior in the 1993 state Class AA race at the Meadowbrook Golf Course in Huron. She won the 4,000-meter race in a record time of 14 minutes and 10 seconds.
"People said I was faking it, but I think today I proved I wasn't faking it," said Harding. "I was pretty sick. They were testing me for cancer."
5. A state championship for Watertown
Harding's final state title in 1993 brought mixed feelings since the Arrows, who hadn't lost all season, finished second to Rapid City Stevens. It's one of five runner-up finishes Watertown's girls have accumulated since 1984.
The Arrows got even with Stevens in October of 2001 at the Elks Country Club in Rapid City, edging the eight-time defending champion Raiders on a tiebreaker for the only state championship in WHS cross country history (boys or girls).
Freshman Mary Foley, Watertown's sixth runner, finished ahead to Stevens' sixth runner to give the Arrows the title. Her teammates included Carrie Mueller and Karle Jacobs, Ashley Engels, Angie Bauer and Caitlin Hiedeman.
"It's a little like the Bible story David and Goliath," Watertown Superintendent Rick Melmer said during a welcome-home celebration for the team. "Stevens was Goliath running on its home course. David had five smooth stones and a slingshot. We also had five runners but as it turned out yesterday, we needed a sixth runner."
4. Four state Class A titles for Milbank
Winning state championships haven't been easy for Watertown and many other schools, but head coach Dick Wherry's girls teams at Milbank found a way to win four Class A titles in 1985, 1986, 1992 and 1995.
The first title came at Pierre when Stacy Hermans took second, Peggy Behlings sixth and Kathy Peterson 16th to lead the Bulldogs to victory. A third-place finish from Hermans sparked a repeat title in 1986 at Mitchell.
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Standout Jaime Pauli, who won three individual state titles, kept Milbank's strong program going into the 1990s. Due to basketball conflicts, she didn't run in 1992 when the Bulldogs returned to the top of Class A.
Pauli finally got a state team championship in 1995 when she joined her sister Erica, Lesli Whiting, Mary Patterson and Kara Schwab in winning the state Class A title at Mitchell.
"Winning the team title was as important to her as being the individual champ," Wherry said. "It was her last time and she wanted to win it with her sister."
3. Let's keep talking about Milbank's Pauli
If you read the top 10 girls' track and field moments story previously, you know that Pauli was one of the best distance runners in state history and she continued her success at the University of Nebraska.
In cross country, she won state Class A individual titles in 1991, 1993 and 1995.
The first title came as an eighth-grader when she defeated three-time defending champion Hiedi Reed of Lennox in the state meet at Mitchell.
"I was following Hiedi. It was close all the way," said Pauli. "I don't know if anyone was close to me because I didn't want to take time to look back."
Pauli also played girls basketball and that was held in the fall throughout her high school career and she sat out the 1992 season before winning the Class A race again in 1993 at Huron. She ran the race, which was held in between to weekend basketball games she also played in.
She returned the top and closed out her career with her final title in 1995.
"She could be the best ever," said Wherry. "If she concentrated just on cross country I think she would be."
2. Watertown's Jessica Fox also becomes a three-time champion
Fox burst onto the state's cross country scene as an eighth-grader in 1996 by winning the state Class AA championship. It was just the start.
After a fourth-place finish as a freshman in 1997, she won again in 1998 by outkicking Yankton's Jenny Buller to cap a perfect season with another state Class AA championship at Mitchell's Lakeview Golf Course.
"At the beginning of the season, my only goal was to run as hard as I could in each race," said Fox. "About halfway through the season, I changed my goal to win every race."
As a junior in 1999, Fox enjoyed another perfect season and by cruising to another state Class AA title with remarkable time of 13 minutes and 12.93 seconds at the Broadland Creek Golf Course in Huron. She won by 48 seconds.
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Fox won despite running with a stress fracture in her leg. She closed out her career with a fifth-place finish as a senior in 2000.
“There’s no one in South Dakota who has ever run her times,” said Watertown head coach Vic Godfrey. “To this point in time, she’s the fastest female cross country runner ever in South Dakota.”
1A. Four titles for Britton-Hecla\'s Kelsey Barrett
The 1A and 1B tie for the No. 1 spot is due to the class that the final two runners competed in. Barrett captured state Class A individual championship in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Barrett won her first state title as an eighth-grader in 2007 before finishing second behind Todd County's Lottie Grimshaw in the 2008 state meet.
She rebounded to beat Grimshaw as a sophomore in 2009 and won her third title at Huron in 2010. In her final season (2011), Barrett became the third runner in state history to win four state titles by edging Spearfish sophomore Savannah Childers in the 4,000-meter race.
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"The thing that makes it really impressive is that Spearfish just dropped from Class AA to Class A this year and Childers was third in AA last fall," said Watertown head coach Vic Godfrey. "Barrett might have won by a foot. It was some kind of a race."
1B. Almost five state titles for Arlington's Kristin Peterson
The first area runner since 1984 to win four state titles was Peterson in Class B.
She opened her streak by winning at Huron as an eighth-grader in 1995 and also topped the field in 1996 at Huron, 1997 at Pierre and 1998 at Mitchell.
It was truly a remarkable set of accomplishments in what was a notable cross country and track and field career for Peterson, who attempted to become the first runner in state history to win a fifth state title as a senior in 1999 at Huron.
She trailed Edmunds Central freshman Jenny Aman by a couple of strides with 200 yards remaining in the 3,000-meter race, which was actually closer to 3,400 meters due to a measuring miscalculation.
As Peterson attempted her final kick, she fell to the ground. She attempted to get up but stumbled two more times and ended up finishing fifth.
A combination of a cold early in the week, dehydration and the pressure of trying to make history may have all been factors.
"It was a combination of a lot of different things," said Arlington coach Randy Park. "She easily could have been second but she was completely drained. No, it wasn't the way she wanted to end here career but it happens.
This article originally appeared on Watertown Public Opinion: Area schools have combined for eight state team titles since 1984.
