IOWA CITY, Iowa - North Mahaska's Cheyenne Shaw and Hunter Rickels of Calamus Wheatland overcame previous disappointments at district meets to break through Thursday here at the Kickers Course to claim championships. The Iowa City Regina girls and Calamus Wheatland boys captured team titles.
Shaw cruised to victory in 20:35, comfortably ahead of second-place finisher Annalee Bartels of Regina. Rickels ran 17:10 to top teammate Chase Knoche (17:16).
Calamus Wheatland dominated the boys race with 46 points. Second-place Maquoketa Valley (95) and third-place Pekin (134) also qualified for the state meet.
On the girls side, Regina won with 36 points. It will be joined at state by Starmont (76) and Pekin (81).
Shaw broke out quick and steadily built her lead through the race. She crossed the finish line with a strong pace.
She finished second at the district meet her freshman season and qualified again last season for the state meet as a sophomore. Thursday, she had winning on her mind.
"Coming into today, I just said I was going to get first and that I had a chance to get first," she said.
Rickels threw out his hip out of place on Wednesday and had to have it popped back into place Thursday morning. He showed no ill effects from the injury on Thursday despite that and his shoe coming untied in the first mile.
"The muscle was sore but I knew it was going to hurt once the adrenaline kicked in. Things didn't go as planned, but you've got to roll with the punches," he said.
Montezuma's Elise Boulton (21:22), Highland's Madison Thomann (21:32.06) and Regina's Josie Voss (21:32.27) finished third through fifth in the girls race.
Pekin's Brady Millikin (17:40.51) and Colten Glosser (17:40.74), and Wilton's Buddy Darting (17:52) came in third through fifth in the boys race.
You can watch the boys race HERE
You can watch the girls race HERE
You can view pictures of both races HERE