Topham wins, Sunberg 45th at state

For the third straight year, Rebekah Topham left Fort Dodge as a state champion cross country runner. Griswold, however, did not repeat as state champions.

As a team, Griswold  finished seventh in the 1A girls meet Saturday afternoon.

The Tigers finished with a score of 204, putting them in the middle of the pack. Pekin won the state team title with a score of 81. Griswold won the title last season with a score of 86 points, while Pekin was runnerup with 102.

Topham’s first place finish was the only top 10 finish for Griswold. The junior ran a time of 13:56.3, which was 14 seconds ahead of Sibley-Ocheyedan’s Leah Seivert. The time for Topham was nearly 10 seconds faster  compared to last season, when she won with a time of 14:05.

Alyx Flippin had a 20th place finish for Griswold, running a time of 16:14. Alyssa Wyman was 47th with a time of 17:12, while Joanna Topham was 64th with 17:41.

Bridget Maurer was 72nd with a time of 17:58 and Kayla Kirchhoff took 82nd with a time of 17:23. Leah Lappe had the final finish for Griswold, placing 99th with a time of 19:35.

Last season, the girls team won the state cross country title for the first time in school history.

Red Oak

The Red Oak boys cross country team wrapped up the 2013 season with two runners placing at the state meet at Fort Dodge Saturday.

Josh Sunberg improved on his placing at the meet by finishing 45th with a time of 17:25.7. 

The time and place were an improvement for the junior, compared to last season’s state meet.

“We need to practice some really fast starts, because he likes to start slower and then just work up,” Red Oak cross country coach Curt Adams said about Sunberg. “That’s what he likes to do and it’s really hard to do that at state because it starts so fast.”

Last year, Sunberg ran a time of 17:37 to place 68th. 

This season was the second straight appearance for Sunberg.

The other runner for Red Oak was Logan LeRette, who took 123rd with a time of 19:25.6 

This was LeRette’s first state cross country meet. 

“I think for a matter of him, it’s just a matter of peaking at state qualifying,” Adams said about LeRette. “He ran such a good race at state qualifying and got so emotionally kind of high from that, I don’t think he had a lot left.”

Sunberg and LeRette qualified for the state meet at Panora Oct. 21. Sunberg finished seventh at the meet with a time of 17:53, while LeRette took ninth with a time of 19:03. Red Oak didn’t have a team qualify for the meet as the boys finished fifth with a score of 124 points.

“They’re just hungry for next year,” Adams said.

Red Oak benefits from having a young team as most of their boys cross country runners could be back for the 2014 season. 

The key varsity loss for the team is Travis Schon.  

Red Oak will also lose seniors Hayden Berry and Christopher Allison. 

However, they will likely get back Gavin French, Jared Sherman, Sunberg, LeRette, Sean Griffen, Lyndon Bright, Donnie Torbett, Weston Rolenc, Ryan Dyson and Nate Schon.

“We’ve already discussed this, it’s like, ‘hey guys, we got two in. But we need to have the whole team here’,” Adams said. “I think I’ve got them convinced. They saw the payoff for this year, but we’ve still got get better.”