Tough Storm Lake Meet Sees HC XC Girls Finish 3rd, Boys 6th

Tough Storm Lake Meet Sees HC XC Girls Finish 3rd, Boys 6th -

(9-13-23) - “Iron sharpens iron.”

It’s phrase used often by Harlan Community teams. This time, it was fitting for the Cyclone cross-country teams as they competed at the Storm Lake Meet Tuesday. Against top-ranked competition, Harlan Community got a great finish on the girls’ side, who were 3rd with 101 pts, and a solid 6th place finish from the boys with 160 pts.

MOC-Floyd Valley took both sides of the meet with 70 pts on the girls’ side and 66 pts on the boys’ side.

Coach Zach Klaassen felt the level of competition at the Storm Lake Invite was tough but the fact his boys were able to keep their time window as close together as they have shows lots of promise moving forward.

"That was really tough competition. A few ranked schools in there got us. But overall, pretty pleased with the effort for the most part. If we can get everybody to cut a little bit of time and keep that window the same... we can move up quite a bit.”

The tougher competition is something Klaassen sees as an important experience to test his runners as they hit the halfway mark of the season.

"Last night was a lot like the state qualifying meet where they got probably 3 ranked teams going to be set to each spot and compete for that state meet. A lot of ranked individuals as well... It's good to see that and kind of use that as a measuring tool to see where we're at and see what we can do to chip away at some of those teams as well.”

The Cyclone girls’ team finished 3rd with 101 pts, despite not having some of the best runners due injuries. Another win for the Cyclones’ Lindsay Sonderman with a time 19:11.00, nearly a minute ahead of her nearest competitor. Allie Anderson had a 20:55.21 to finish 7th while Taylor Bieker had a time of 21:58.96 to finish 22nd. Getting some of the younger runners involved at this point of the season helps them experience top-notch competition and figure out what they need to do to improve at that level.

“The difference between JV and Varsity, it's not necessarily the pace throughout the race, it's that first half mile, that speed and you don't really feel it and understand it until you've been out there.”

Harlan Community cross-country will next compete at Quail Run on the Tri-Center Invite on Tuesday.

Full results from the Storm Lake Meet are available here: STORM LAKE XC MEET - 9-12-23

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