Southwest North Dakota cross country off the line at a good pace
Sep. 12—SOUTHWEST NORTH DAKOTA — Cross-country meets come along about once a week, but you wouldn't know it to see how much the runners are improving on various teams throughout the area. With a pair of races, one on Sept. 8 — the Glendive (Mont.) Invitational — and the other on Sept. 1 — the Bowman County Invite — the runners from area teams are getting some miles on their shoes as they proceed through the truncated North Dakota cross-country season.
In the case of the Glendive meet, the top-area boys performer was third-place junior Jekori Dahlen from Killdeer, who turned in a time of 16:50.94 to lead local runners, followed by his sibling and teammate Nekori Dahlen's 17:50.24, good enough for 10th-place in the 5,000-meter event.
Other area top-runners from each team turning in solid times were Beach's Gavin Farstveet, who came across the finish-line at a 20th-place 19:50.87 and Dickinson Trinity's Landon Knote, who was 21st at 19:52.90.
Custer County came away with the win, while Dawson County finished second, Sidney was third, Killdeer was fourth and Trinity came in at sixth for the boys.
On the girls' side, another pair of Killdeer runners earned top-10 spots with third-place Addie Miller leading the way among area runners with a third-place 19:52.49 and she was followed by ninth-place teammate 20:24.76. Top-finishers for individual area schools included Trinity's Celine Lefor, in at 22nd-place with 22:34.27, and Heart River's Serra Buerkle with a 43rd-place 26:40.25.
Williston won the girls meet in Glendive, with Killdeer placing third.
Going back to the Sept. 1 Bowman County Invite, the Bulldogs' girls team won their home meet going away, while Dickinson High School finished second and Killdeer ending up third.
New England's Noa Sancho took first at 20:09.14 and Killdeer's Abbie Hardersen wound up with a third-place 21:16.39 with teammate Addie Miller a few seconds behind with a fourth-place 21:26.48. DHS's Leila Gregoire took home fifth with a time of 21:35.32 and two BCHS runners — Landyn Gerbig and Julie Sarsland — took sixth and seventh with 21:37.23 and 21:42.76, respectively, and their teammate Jaci Fischer came in the top-10 at a ninth-place 21:53.49.
Other scores in the top-20 were Hettinger-Scranton's Kayla Schauer in at 17th with a 23:16.91, along with her 20th-place teammate and sister Kelly Schauer with a 23:44.81 and Heart River's top-performer among area schools was Serra Buerkle with a 29:43.32.
Among the boys performers were an absolute slew of Bowman County runners — who combined to finish second-place in the meet to Williston — with Dickinson finishing third-overall and Glen Ullin/Hebron ending up in sixth.
Bulldogs standout Taylor Wanner was first-overall at 16:26.72 and his teammate Jonah Njos was third-place at 17:08.9. Killdeer's Jekori Dahlen was the top-team-performer at a sixth-place 17:44.32, while Bowman County's Gavin Lambourn rounding out the top-10 at 18:00.74. Meanwhile, three other Bowman County Bulldogs crossed the finish-line in 12-14th places with Thomas Bowman at 18:12.88, Gabe Sarsland close behind at 18:16.87 and Noah Njos 14th with an 18:25.72. Killdeer's Nekori Dahlen was the final top-20 performer from the area with a 16th-place 18:33.
Other area teams' top-performers included Jaxon Rolle from Glen Ullin/Hebron at 19:13. 5 and Hettinger-Scranton's Trevor Dalley at 19:16.1. Richardton-Taylor's Tracy Aune ended up with a 19:41.82 and Beach's Gavin Farstveet turned in a 21:05.32.
For more information about cross country in North Dakota, please visit either
https://ndhsaanow.com/tournaments/crosscountry-boys
,
https://ndhsaanow.com/tournaments/crosscountry-girls
or keep reading The Dickinson Press.
