Cross Country coach Todd Thorson talks with runners after they complete their recent workout.
The Ipswich cross country program under head coach Todd Thorson will be quite youthful this year with no seniors on either the girls or boys rosters. But Thorson says that it's very possible that there is a combined girls/boys record turnout of 24 runners this season. (That equates to 16 girls and eight boys.)
The Tiger girls indeed graduated a 2019 State B Top 10 finisher, Tessa Kilber, eighth at last year's meet, who will certainly be missed. But the team finished sixth in last year's girls team standings at the B after winning their regionals and would no doubt like to be in contention again this year at the State B near Rapid City.
And that also goes for the Tiger boys who had only qualified two runners for the 2019 B, so weren't even eligible for the team standings. Taylor Thorson, a 2020 junior, medaled at last year's B in 19th and will be counted upon for upper-class leadership. And the same holds true for the girls, with Emily DeRaad and Makala DeRaad being IHS 11th-graders. One of the returning girls, Ashlinn Hartwell, indeed also medaled in last year's B in 25th. She is an eighth grader.
Ashley Ptacek is the lone sophomore. There are currently no ninth-grade girls, but there will be three eighth-grade participants including Hartwell, along with Reaghan Bowers and Sommer DeRaad. There are no fewer than 10 seventh-grade newcomers, including alphabetically, Natalie Crissman, Ava Davis, Madisyn Gellhaus, Gracyn Kadlec, Sienna Kessler, Anna Nierman, Kierston Pietz, Katelyn Tufte, Bella Unser and Gabrielle Wald.
The remaining Tiger boys will include sophomores Evan Onken and Turner Thorson (Ipswich's other 2019 State B qualifier), freshmen Xavier Kadlec and Dylan Wald and seventh graders Tyler Gellhaus, Clayton Horst and Jon Kintz.
The teams' first taste of competition is scheduled for August 28 in Pierre and one of the features of their season will be a September 12 invite in Ipswich. The LRC meet will also be in Ipswich on October 7. The regionals are in Gettysburg on October 14 and the state meet is planned for October 24.
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