Marie Yoder qualified for the state cross country meet in each of her first three seasons for Hillcrest Academy. On Thursday, she made it four straight trips to state with a 5th place finish at the Van Buren County State Qualifying meet.
“It’s so crazy,” Marie said following the race. “It’s been so much fun getting to go back for four years in a row, it’ll be so cool to run at state again.”
Yoder, who finished 40th in last year’s state meet and reached her highest finish of 8th place as a sophomore, will be the lone Raven girl on the course for the first time since her freshman year after qualifying alongside Siena Stanerson, who graduated last spring, in 2024 and 2025.
“There’s definitely a few more nerves, since it’s my last chance,” Marie said.
This year, though, she’ll have the support of her brother Troy on the course, a freshman who also qualified for the state meet.
“It’s really fun to have my little brother here, and he’s really good,” Marie said. “It’ll be really fun… running together at state.”
Troy also finished 5th at Van Buren on Thursday, while Raven sophomore Calvin Meller finished 9th to qualify as well.
“He’s such a great runner,” Meller said of Troy. “It’s been so much fun to be able to run with him right off the bat.I’ve had a hard time keeping up with him, but it’s good to push me. I think he’s the reason I got here, and it’s been amazing.”
Troy and Calvin led the charge to a solid team finish for the Ravens as well, as Hillcrest finished 3rd in the standings of a field that included 4 qualifiers for last year’s state meet, as Columbus, Van Buren County, Pekin and Lynnville-Sully were all pulled to a single site this year.
“We have so much talent on this team, and hopefully we can find a way to get there [as a team] in the next two years,” Meller said. “I’m so excited for what the future will hold.”
Highland’s Brock Nebergall finished as the top area boy at the state qualifying meet, as he passed Troy on the final straightaway to secure a 4th-place finish.
“I was already top ten, but I wanted more,” Nebergall said of his surge at the finish line. “I wanted there to be no doubt… My legs were feeling it, I was dead, but no matter what, I just went all out, everything I had left, I used it.”
Nebergall returns to the state meet after making the trip to Fort Dodge with Lone Tree last year. Nebergall is the first Husky to qualify for state since 2019 and the first Highland boy to do so since 2017.
“It feels wonderful, not just for myself, but for the kids coming up, the young kids in elementary and middle school thinking about doing cross country, that it’s another sport up there with football. You don’t have to be just football because it’s the main sport, the most popular sport,” Nebergall said. “Getting the word out there for future generations to come, that you can do cross country here and you can have success in it, I really enjoy being that person for them.”
Nebergall, Meller and the Yoders will compete in the state meet in Fort Dodge Monday morning. The girls’ meet is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. while the boys’ meet is set to start at 11:15 a.m.
By the numbers:
Top 2 teams, 10 individuals qualified for state
GIRLS’ TOP 3 TEAMS: 1, Van Buren County, 51; 2, Lynnville-Sully, 51; 3, English Valleys, 77
GIRLS’ TOP 10 RUNNERS: 1, Josie Dykstra, WACO, 18:46.5; 2, Kinsey Prunty, Wayne, 20:05.4; 3, KoraRae Stott, Danville, 20:10.8; 4, Macie Carter, WACO, 20:13.0; 5, Marie Yoder, Hillcrest Academy, 20:27.4; 6, Kayley Snowgren, Van Buren County, 20:30.3; 7, Kate Arkema, Lynnville-Sully, 20:30.3; 8, Emma Parkinson, Lynnville-Sully, 20:34.9; 9, Mandeesa Vos, Lynnville-Sully, 20:35.5; 10, Anna Luers, English Valleys, 20:39.9
HIGHLAND: 19, Grace Bombei, 21:55.0; 59, Anna Piette 28:48.7
LONE TREE: 37, Ruby Hall, 23:40.7; 39, Lydia Hartman, 23:43.9
BOYS’ TOP 3 TEAMS: 1, Lynnville-Sully, 49; 2, Columbus, 58; 3, Hillcrest Academy, 115
BOYS’ TOP 10 RUNNERS: 1, Colton Alberts, Lynnville-Sully, 16:21.3; 2, Leondre Ceant, Columbus, 16:31.6; 3, Blake Wilmesmeier, 16:45.6; 4, Brock Nebergall, Highland, 16:47.0; 5 Troy Yoder, Hillcrest Academy, 16:47.7; 6, Landry Loeffler, Van Buren County, 16:50.6; 7, Kevin Villa, Columbus, 16:54.2; 8, Madden Gunsaulus, Lynnville-Sully, 17:15.9; 9, Calvin Meller, Hillcrest Academy, 17:17.5; 10, Mason Dahlstrom, Pekin, 17:26.8
HILLCREST: 24, Braden Hartsock, 18:30.0; 35, Jaxson Brokaw, 19:16.5; 48, Isaac Beachy, 20:07.6; 69, Merle Cronquist, 21:55.0
HIGHLAND: 38, Kyler Fink, 19:42.7; 73, Issac Giesmann, 22:15.8; 83, Jackson Robinson, 23:50.6; 90, Brody Beinhart, 26:11.2
LONE TREE: 78, Carter Parrish, 23:05.1; 79, Trenton McKean, 23:24.5; 86, Max Poock, 24:18.7
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