Rau, Cyclone XC Girls Win Home Meet, Boys 8th

HC XC Ashlyn Rau & Julia Heslink (9-27-25)

HC XC Jeffery Gross (9-27-25)

Rau, Cyclone XC Girls Win Home Meet, Boys 8th -

(9-27-25) – There’s no place like home.

Harlan Community hosted their home meet Saturday and it lead to a nice win for the girls’ team while the boys’ had a solid performance.

The girls’ team earned a win with 55 points behind Ashlyn Rau’s individual victory time of 18:30.15. Rau kicked it into another gear at the finish to secure the win.

“I was thinking about how it's so close to the end and I could just push myself so hard and that's what I did.”

“She doesn't do anything halfway. She's all in,” said Cyclone Cross-Country Coach Zach Klaassen. “She hadn't beat Grace (Berglund of Glenwood) yet. I know that's what we talked about yesterday in our pre-race meeting and she ran a smart race.”

Julia Heslink finished 5th for the Cyclones with a time of 19:42.19. She says proud of how she finished.

“Unfortunately, today I got by myself, so learning to be able to mentally be by yourself in a race, that's so tough.”

A misstep likely cost Heslink some positions, but something that’s correctable, according to Klaassen.

“Julia's time could have been a little better. She took a wrong turn, had to go backwards and get back on the track a little bit. I don't know, she's a freshman, that's for sure.”

Glenwood finished 2nd and Treynor was 3rd.

Boys results, Jeffery Gross sprinted out strong and finished 11th with a time of 17:06.69. Gross talked about the race he ran against some top-tier competition.

“At the beginning of this meet, I know I had to deal with a lot of tough competition, so I figured at the beginning there, I tried to get out. Try to get a place for myself. Unfortunately, I died a little bit towards the middle of it, and at the end there, I tried to sprint through the end.”

Klaassen says his young runner is still learning how to compete.

“But we just talked about, if you know the competition you have and you kind of know where they can finish, maybe let them pull you along for a while and then just stick with it and then see what you got at the end.
He's always learning. He's having a heck of a year and he's grown a lot in the last couple of years.”

Kevin Coots and Evan Lillie of Lewis Central finished 1st and 2nd but Riverside earned the team title with 47 points. The Cyclone boys finished 8th with 215pts.

View past scores by visiting the Iowa High School Athletic Association's website, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union website,
or Iowa Quik Stats