Successful Start to Cyclones XC Season as Girls’ Win, Boys’ 4th at Shen Meet

Successful Start to Cyclones XC Season as Girls’ Win, Boys’ 4th at Shen Meet –

(8-27-25) - Harlan Community got their cross-country season underway Tuesday in impressive fashion.

For the girls’ meet, Ashlyn Rau and Julia Heslink finished 2nd and 3rd respectively, leading five Cyclone girls to Top-20 finishes and earn a girls’ team victory with 34 points at the Shenandoah meet.

“They got after it,” said Harlan Community XC Coach Zach Klaassen. “We got out of the gates. We talked about not getting boxed in right away. We were kind of in the middle of the shoot, so we had to shoot out quick, otherwise the outsides are going to box us in and I thought we got out to a good start.”

Rau finished with a time of 19:51.47, just over 3 seconds behind winner Lilly Miller of Treynor (19:48.30).

Heslink ran a time of 20:13.49. Klaassen said she did as she was instructed and ran an excellent first race of her career.

“Julia being, like every freshman, that first varsity race is kind of stressful, but just kind of told her before the race to latch on to Ashlyn, let her do her thinking and just trust her training and I think she did a good job.”

Treynor girls’ finished 2nd and host Shenandoah was 3rd.

On the boys side, Harlan Community’s Jeffery Gross continued stellar running from the spring with a 2nd place finish with a time of 17:09.61 leading the Cyclones to a 4th place overall finish with 93 points.

Klaassen likes seeing the confidence Gross is running with now that he’s running healthy.

“He led that race for the first mile and 1/2 or so. Just running with confidence. He looks like a stronger runner than he was a year ago. Just more upright and (that) just lets him breathe a little easier. Plus he's healthy and you know, that adds up to making him a lot more successful.”

Cyclones Brogan Schechinger and Erik Heslink finished 14th and 15th respectively.

Red Oak’s Emmanuel Gross was your individual winner with a time of 16:52.11 leading the Tigers to a team victory with 44 points.

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