ACGC senior Lauryn Embleton thought her cross country career was over after finishing in 18th place at Thursday’s Class 1A state qualifier. Just a few minutes later that agony turned to jubilation as she and the rest of the Charger girls found out they did just enough to qualify as a team. The ACGC girls finished in 3rd place and claimed the final team spot at Harlan Rogers Park from their home qualifier.
Embleton credits her team for their effort in making the cut. “We’ve worked so hard for this. We worked all summer and all season long and we deserve this, especially after last year.”
The team finished with 108 points, just 20 more than AHSTW. Earlham won the meet title, while Tri-Center finished in 2nd. Individually, Tri-Center’s Peyton Pogge finished nearly a minute ahead of the rest of the field. Bedford’s Emma Lucas came in second, while ACGC’s Kate Crawford finished in 3rd.
Crawford, who will be making her third individual appearance at state, tells Raccoon Valley Radio what head coach Colin Shawgo told the girls before the race. “He basically just told us that we’ve worked hard all summer and this whole beginning of fall for this and now is our chance to show everyone what we can do.”
Individually on the boys side, the gold and black will have two representatives. Seniors Noah Nelsen and Clay Billheimer finished in 2nd and 11th respectively. Nelsen says the home crowd definitely helped their progress on the course. “It’s definitely a confidence booster to have it on our home course. We had a large amount of fans here tonight and that just added to the morale of the team.”
As a team the Charger boys finished in 5th, 20 points shy of 3rd place Woodward Academy. Earlham swept the meet with a team victory on the boys side, while defending champions Nodaway Valley took 2nd. Louden Foster of West Central Valley also took 3rd individually and punched his ticket to Fort Dodge. To see a full list of results, click on the links below. To hear full interviews from Thursday’s qualifier, listen to Monday night’s Wahl McAtee Tire and Service Center Guthrie County PM Sports Page at 6pm on True Country, K107.9.