Rangers set personal records in Sioux Falls

Last week the Hill City High School Ranger cross country team traveled to Sioux Falls for the Nike Heartland Preview Saturday, Sept. 14. 

According to head coach Joe Noyes, the course is similar to what the Rangers will compete on for the remainder of the season.

“It was good to get the kids on a track like that again and watch them cruise,” said Noyes. 

In the boys varsity 5K, Tate Grabow claimed sixth place with a personal record of 15:47.10. Only one athlete from South Dakota beat Grabow, and he was an AA runner. 

Noyes said, “It was 13 seconds faster than he’s ever run on that course, and six seconds faster than he’s run. It was a really good, gutsy performance out of him.”

Following up with another personal record, James Dubois placed 78th with a time of 17:41.70, effectively breaking the 18 minute barrier. 

“Getting under that number is a big step in the right direction,” said Noyes. “It was a really good performance by him.” 

Barrett Bush also achieved a personal record coming in 147th with a time of 19:09.50. Finally, John Titus Isakson finished for the Rangers in 172nd at 19:41.50. 

Brandon Escalante started the race, but he needed to step off the course about a mile in Noyes said, “He’s got a little bit of a foot issue that’s bothering him so we just played it safe.” 

“All in all, the boys definitely took advantage of the opportunity. It has us encouraged for what’s going to happen in the next couple of weeks,” said Noyes. 

In the girls varsity 5K, Rarity Cournoyer led the way. She placed 16th with a personal record of 19:02.40. Cournoyer started the season off slow as she recovered from an injury so this was her first 5K race of the year. 

“She ran a really tough race. I really think the sky’s the limit for her where she can end up by the end of the year,” said Noyes. 

Next was Brooke Thayer-Burke in 36th with a time of 20:20.30. Noyes said she “ran a good tough race.”

Behind her was Aspen Veneklasen in 58th with a time of 21:04.30. After that, Hadley Walker finished 91st at 22:05.40, and Jaelyn Peters finished 95th at 22:16.50.

“Again, those girls are just gutsy. If they continue to bring that effort and that attitude that they brought this week and the week before, I’m going to feel really encouraged about where our girls will be by the end of the season,” said Noyes. 

Finally, Paiton Flick placed 106th at 22:49.30, Phoebe Bentley-Buschur placed 116th at 23:15 and Aliyah Peters placed 117th at 23:15.50. 

Noyes said, “I was really impressed with our girls. We took eight girls, and all eight of them were competitive, racing hard for each other. It’s going to be a battle to see who our six girls are that will represent us at state, and this was our first step towards finding out where they’re at.”

To give the athletes a break, the Rangers will not compete again until the Rapid City Invite at Hart Ranch Resort Friday, Sept. 27. Ideally, Noyes said they would race every other week, but it depends on where your team is at and how much race experience is needed. 

“In cross country, races are actually really hard on a runner because it’s a three mile race with sustained intensity for that entire time. So it actually really wears you out,” said Noyes. “We feel that we’ve got a pretty veteran group right now. We were happy with how things went on Saturday, so we’re not going to race until the Rapid Invite.” 

Instead, the Rangers will  focus on training. Last week Noyes challenged the athletes to hit their times in their repetitions, and they rose to it. Now the challenge is to turn that consistency into a habit. 

“We’ve got two weeks. We can be aggressive. We can really push these workouts and try to take a step up in our fitness level. So we’ll really target some solid workouts this week,” said Noyes.