Raider boys claim GDC title

By Jake Nordbye, Journal correspondent | Saturday, October 11, 2008

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RAPID CITY — Solid contirubtions up and down the Rapid City Stevens boys cross country team  allowed it to edge Sioux Falls Washington for the Greater Dakota Conference title at Elks Golf Course on Friday.

“We did a great job out front in our 1-2 punch,” said Stevens head coach Forrest Flaagan. “It was a little up in the air, but I’m really pleased with how they performed. We got super efforts out of all 10 of our runners.”

With rain pouring down, and the course extremely damp and soft, Stevens finished with a solid 47 points, followed by Washington with 72 and Sioux Falls Roosevelt rounded out the top three with 81.

“We’re happy at finishing first and second individually,” said Sioux Falls Washington head coach Mike Shultz. “But it wasn’t quite enough today. Stevens ran well and you have to give them credit.”

Washington’s Josh Heitkamp took the individual title with a time of 16 minutes, 33 seconds and his teammate Alex Holm came in second at 16:52.

The Raiders’ runners were right behind.

Nathan Richardson finished third, just one second back of Holm at 16:53 and Riley Coates followed directly behind his teammate at 16:54.

“It was a team effort today,” said Richardson. “We were pushing each other out there, and going for the team more than the individual. It felt like the whole pack started out a little slow because of the conditions. I was trying to push my teammates so we could win this thing. It was a lot of fun.”

Sturgis’ Damien Schuster took 11th and Spearfish’s Jared Hicks followed in 12th.

In the girls race, Sioux Falls Roosevelt claimed both the team and the individual championships. Roosevelt’s Erin Hargens won the race with a time of 14:49 and  teammate Seanna Kautz was close behind with a time of 14:54.

The Raiders again finished third and fourth individually, which propelled them to a second place finish in the team standings.

Annie Pfeifle came in third for the Raiders at 15:00 and Sarah Coomes was fourth with a time of 15:15.

“I’m really happy with the way things turned out,” said Pfeifle. “For the first half of the race Sarah and I pushed each other. As a team we did well, and we’re happy with that.”

Roosevelt finished with 24 points in the team category, followed by Stevens with 47 and Washington with 101. Sturgis finished fourth with 114.

The Scoopers’ top runner and defending state champion Madeleine Takahashi finished fifth individually. Teammate Tera Potts took 12th in 15:56 to round out a strong performance.

Next up for the area cross country teams is the Rapid City Invitational on Thursday at the Executive Golf Course.