Can anyone knock off Custer

 By Rich Winter

Well, we are about half way through the cross-country season and things are beginning to take shape with results coming in from all over the state. 

Class A girls: Cait Savey of Beresford has stamped herself as the favorite with some great early season times. It is going to take a heck of an effort to catch her, but, there are some horses in the field that should close the gap by the state meet. 

Class A boys: Looks like the race is Derek Peters to lose. The West Central senior has flirted with going sub-15 for 5k. Chasing him will be Custer's Joe Rush, STM's Ty Trainor and Sioux Falls Christian's Lance Van Zee.

And so, since I've never seen a cross-country poll in South Dakota, here, today on Sep. 20 is the first Class A cross-country poll in state history!!

Class A girls

1st - Custer

2nd - Hill City

3rd - Sioux Falls Christian

4th - Lennox

5th - Beresford

The Custer girls finished 3rd at the Huron Invite against mostly AA schools (The meet was scored as a AA meet with the top-5 from each school counting. 

That said, Mallory Delmont 6th, (19:27), 12th - Kadense Dooley (19:59), 16th - Tayler Carlsen (20:11), 24th - Tori Glazer (20:26)

By state meet that is likely four girls going sub-20 and that is just too much horse-power for anyone in the A field to handle. 

Class a boys:

1st - Custer

2nd - Sioux Falls Christian

3rd - West Central

T4th - Beresford

T4th - Stanley County

Also at Huron, the Custer boys ran exceptionally well. Joe Rush won the race (16:10), Nathaniel Youngblood was 8th, Ben Wahlstron was 12th and Max Osterling 17th with a 17:25. Just to emphasize how strong this Custer team is Jace Osterling finished 30th running sub 18....The Custer boys finished 2nd in a loaded AA field. 

Sioux Falls Christian is dangerous and on any given day could challenge the Wildcats. West Central will have two high finishers and after that we'll see. 

Beresford's Alec Atwood is the real deal but his teammates will have to run more consistently to finish in the top-5.

I like this Stanley County team: VanDenHemel and Meiners continue to improve and this squad looks like they could be in line for a region title and perhaps bigger things at the state meet. 

Class B cross-country poll comes out tomorrow!