The Mason City Girls’ and Boys’ Cross Country team competed in the home Riverhawk Invitational on Tuesday of this week against area schools and won a total of 23 medals between boys’ and girls’ varsity and JV teams.
“I thought the meet went well for everybody… middle school, JV, varsity,” said head coach Tyler Ketelsen after the meet, “All the runners did a great job tonight.”
Leading the girls’ varsity with a time of 19:58 was junior Brogan Evans. The girls’ team won the meet by a large margin with a total of 19 points. The second-place team was Newman Catholic with 84 points. Girls’ medalists included Evans (1st), senior Janae Hansen (2nd), senior Savannah Davis (3rd), freshman Leah Dykstra (6th), freshman Paizlee Carter (7th), and senior Erin TerHark (10th).
When asked about her race, Hansen said, “I went out too cautiously, but came back faster for the last half of the race to make up for it.” And quite a comeback it was: despite averaging 6:33 for her first two miles, she ran a 6:10 final mile.
The girls’ team members experienced widespread personal and season records throughout the team, notably TerHark, dropping 35 seconds off her season PR and 23 seconds off her lifetime PR. TerHark said that being on her home course helped gain a mental advantage. “We ran [the course] at practice on the prior Saturday, so during my race I was able to remind myself of all the different markers I wanted to surge at,” TerHark said. “It also was my last time running the course, so I had to end it on a good note.”
The girls’ team, currently ranked 19th in the 4A cross country standings, has high hopes for the rest of the season. When asked about the team’s future prospects, Hansen said, “I know they have even more in them.” Assistant coach Aaron Hardcastle added, “A team goal going forward for this young but experienced group at the same time is to continue to keep dropping our times which should result in us continuing to climb the state rankings.”
According to Hardcastle, one of the causes of the girls’ breakthrough meet was working together. “The girls varsity team as a whole did a great job feeding off each other’s energy,” he said. “Watching the race unfold last night it seemed like each runner had at least one teammate to run with or slightly behind for the most of the race. When that happens for our varsity team our team is stronger together as a unit.”
The JV girls swept all of the first five places in their race, with all six runners placing in the top ten. Kate Kotta, a junior, finished in first place with a season best of 23:50.
Leading the boys’ varsity was sophomore Henry Hansen with a time of 17:11. Other boys’ varsity medalists included Brant Haakenstad (10th) and Elliot Ruiz (17th). The boys’ team tied Newman Catholic for second place (but officially listed as third) with a total of 86 points each.
“In the varsity race the performance that stuck out to me came from Brandt Haakenstad,” said Hardcastle. “Brandt has been working really hard towards getting back under 18 minutes.” Haakenstad, scoring a season PR of nearly a minute in a time of 17:59, said, “I was very pleased with finally getting under 18 this season. I knew it would be a tough road back after months of injury, so it was great to finally achieve that goal.” In contrast to Hansen’s fast third mile, Haakenstad focused on speeding up his second mile.
Haakenstad has big hopes for the boys’ team as they continue with their season. “I’m hoping everyone on the boys’ team can get some big late-season PRs and we can send someone to the state meet.”
Hardcastle was happy with the boys’ team’s performance despite several varsity runners unable to race due to injury or illness, saying that the team “competed hard and all came close to or got a personal best for their race.”
Six of the twelve Mason City runners in the JV boys’ race medaled, notably sophomore Ben Jensen (2nd) and freshman Elijah Bahls (3rd).
