IOWA CITY

Marie Yoder’s impressive season continued with a first-place finish at state qualifiers at the Iowa City Kickers Complex on Thursday, Oct. 19. Yoder finished the 5K race with a time of 20:30.9.

The freshman crossed the finish line all by her lonesome.

“It’s really neat to make first place at the state qualifier and then also get to qualify but it gave me a lot of confidence going into state now after winning,” Yoder said.

When the blanks sounded and the runners took off, Yoder found herself in the middle of the pack. It did not take long for her to find her way to the front of the line to set the pace.

Her finish was more than 30 seconds ahead of second place.

Yoder is looking forward to her chance at running for state.

“I’m really excited to get to run [at state] and it’s going to be a new course and colossal competition, so it’ll be a good course to PR at,” Yoder said.

Yoder was pleasantly surprised by her freshman season, stating “I did better than I expected, which is really awesome.”

Hillcrest girl’s cross-country

Freshmen ruled the top 10 at Kickers. Collins-Maxwell’s Jayden Peters finished second and Iris Garza of Columbus finished third. Two more freshmen finished in the top 10, the runners who would qualify for state.

Of the 68 total runners, Regina Catholic finished first place for schools who dressed enough runners with a team score of 52, qualifying them for state competition. Hillcrest girls did not participate in team scores since they did not dress enough runners.

The other Ravens to compete for the girls team were Rya Scott (31), Delaney Shaw (36), and Brynna O’Rourke (54).

Hillcrest boy’s cross-country

Regina would claim the team title for the boys’ race as well with a team score of 51, qualifying for state. Van Buren County’s Lincoln Bainbridge took first place with a time of 16:52.7. There was a total of 98 runners in this race.

The Hillcrest boys team ranked 11th of 13 teams with a score of 263. Their top finisher was junior Micah Gerber with a time of 19:05.2 which was good enough for 26th place.

Other runners for the boys’ team were Jesse Blossom (38), Isaac Beachy (64), Braden Hartsock (80), Jeremiah Danker (86) and Micah Kacmarynski (88).

Results (girls)

1. Marie Yoder, Hillcrest, 20:30.9

31. Rya Scott, Hillcrest, 24:10.1

36. Delaney Shaw, Hillcrest, 25:14.4

54. Brynna O’Rourke, Hillcrest, 27:02

Results (boys)

1. Lincoln Bainbridge, Van Buren County, 16:52.7

26. Micah Gerber, Hillcrest, 19:05.2

38. Jesse Blossom, Hillcrest, 19:48.4

64. Isaac Beachy, Hillcrest, 21:22.3

80. Braden Hartsock, Hillcrest, 23:07.3

86. Jeremiah Danker, Hillcrest, 23:45.9

88. Micah Kacmarynski, Hillcrest, 24:01.1