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5A PRE-REGION MEET
Todd County HS, Mission, SD
Sept 4th, 2009
Last Friday, the Ranger Cross Country teams made the trip down to Mission
for the Pre-Region 5A Cross Country meet. The pre-regional meet provided a chance
to run the same course that will be used in just over a month for the Region 5A meet.
In addition, the race gives athletes and coaches a rough idea of where their teams and athletes stack up with the rest
of the region teams.
Fortunately, the young Runnin’ Rangers are headed in the right direction.
Leading the Ranger squads was Tyler Triplett in the boy’s varsity race. Through a summer of diligent training, Tyler has transformed himself into one of the
top runners in the region, finishing in 9th place with a 1 minute, 30+ second all-time personal best, 18:47 for
5000 meters.
The Ranger girls toed the line against last year’s Class A Runner-up
Custer Wildcats in the varsity race and competed with unmatched determination for such a young group. Unofficially, the girls finished in second place in the team standings behind the strong Custer team.
Pacing the Lady Rangers, Cassidy
Hart had a much improved race, finishing in 10th place with a personal best of 18:48 for 4000 meters. Jennifer Qualm passed over 20 runners in the last 1.5 miles to finish just behind Cassidy in 11th
place (18:58) for her first 4k race. Michal Weiderhold continued to impress,
as she also earned a Top-20 medal, finishing a strong 17th place (19:45).
Karly Dehn ran a tough race, passing another girl up the final hill to grab the final medal in 20th place
(19:56). Tia Grabow ran her first 4000m race as well, finishing in 22:10, holding
off several girls in the final stretch.
The Rangers middle school, JV and Varsity teams will compete Thursday at the
Belle Fourche Invitational with the Middle School races starting at 1:30 followed by the high school races.
DOUGLAS EARLY BIRD RECAP
The Ranger Cross Country teams got
off to an early start at the Douglas Invitational last Friday. Seven girls
and two boys participated in the event, which featured over two hundred runners from all of the local AA, A and B schools. The meet was a great indicator of early season fitness and a preview of what is to
come for the 2009 Ranger XC squads.
The boys kicked off the day with Tyler Triplett
and Kyle Alexander running in the varsity portion of the meet. Tyler and Kyle
started conservatively in the 5000 meter race, as planned, and started clicking past tiring runners each kilometer. Tyler, who put in a great summer of running, ended up running an all-time personal best of 20:23 for 30th
place (13th Class A). Kyle, who has been bothered by a lingering knee
injury, faded the last mile, finishing in 41st place overall but will surely be back on track in the coming weeks
when he can get healthy.
The girls, although young and inexperienced,
put on a great display of racing in the JV race. The JV race actually turned
out to be a nice-sized event, as the entire Rapid City Central girl’s squad ran in junior varsity division, as did many
other athletes, due to the 3000 meter course distance. In the 68 person race,
seventh-grader Jennifer Qualm led the troops with a smartly-run 9th place finish, clocking 13:47 for the 3k course. Freshman Cassidy Hart, who was running with the lead pack for the first half of the
race fell off the front, but came back nicely to finish right behind Qualm in 11th place, running a 20 second PR
for the course in 13:48. Another seventh-grader, Michal Weiderhold, ran very
well and is also much improved from last season. Michal cracked the Top 20 with a 17th place finish of her own
(13:59). New to the Rangers this season for cross country and running their first
cross country races ever were, Karly Dehn (25th in 14:45), Heather Gourde (29th in 14:55), Tia Grabow
(30th in 15:02) and exchange student, Hedda Runestam from Sweden (49th in 15:59) rounded out the Lady
XC Ranger’s team. These girls had great races and will only get better
with experience. Had team scores been kept in the Girls JV Division, the
Rangers would have outdistanced Class AA Rapid City Central by over 10 points.
Next on tap for the Rangers in the
ultra-quick South Dakota Cross Country season is the Region 5A Preview meet in Mission, SD this Friday.
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