Cross country team enters season with running start

Much of the Custer High School cross country team has been running consistently and steadily through the summer. The hard work seemed to payoff for its first race of the season at Mallo Camp near Newcastle, Wyo., as the boys team earned third place and the girls earned second.
“It was a good first meet for everybody,” said head coach Karen Karim.
The course is hilly and challenging, and  Karim said the team would treat the race like a workout, using it to prepare and get its feet wet for the coming races.
This year, both the boys and girls teams have a mix of veteran runners and those who will be stepping into bigger running shoes this season. Right now there are about 40 students on the team, but Karim expects that number to grow a bit as they tend to recruit some additional runners at the start of the school year.
Leading the pack on the boys team was Sean Shipp, a junior who Karim said “worked really hard” over the summer and has “come a long ways from last year,” which was his first year running cross country. He finished in fifth place in 17:29.40     at Friday’s meet.
Just behind Shipp was Drew Lehman, who finished in 17:50.38    and came in sixth place. Lehman has been running track workouts this summer as he competed in the USATF Junior Olympic Championships, so Karim says he will likely be “creeping up” on some of the other top runners in the state as the season progresses.
Kian Rusch was next to come down the finish line with a time of 19:27.83, which was good for 16th place. Rusch has been recovering from injuries over the summer, but could be one to look for in the top spots as the season continues.
Kody Marshall came in 26th place with a time of 21:32.45    . Teammate Dylan Frank was nearby with a time of 21:58.02 and a 26th place finish.
Kai Rusch (32nd), Tyler Cooper (35th) and Mical Grace (42nd) ran across the finish line in 22:32.46, 23:03.83 and 23:54.51, respectively.
Brit Wheeler is a frontrunner on the girls team, as she proved Saturday. She finished sixth in Saturday’s race with a time of 22:35.77. Hailey Woodward finished just 30 seconds behind to earn 12th place with a time of 23:05.37.
In the 16th and 17th place spots were Mattea Marshall and Sierra Swanson, respectively. They finished just 10 seconds apart with times at 24:01.63     and 24:11.78.
The next Wildcat to cross the finish line was Quinn Lewison, who finished in     28:58.72    .
Olivia Wilkins finished the race in 32:05.19 and Jacie Behlings shortly after in 32:33.27 to round out the girls roster.
The junior varsity and middle school races also went well for the Wildcats. On the boys JV team, Wildcats swept the top four places with David Lewis, Austin Drew, Dalton Marshall and Ethan O’Connor crossing the finish line in that order.
Still in the early in the season, Karim said the varsity spots by the end of the season will still take time to shake out.
Next the team travels to Sioux Falls for the Augustana Twilight Meet, where Karim says the team usually scores some fast times. It is an important meet for the team as it will be the location for the state meet at the end of the season, where Karim hopes to take full teams for both the boys and girls.