It was an early day for the Forest City cross country teams, as they loaded the bus around 12:15 PM en route to Dike, Iowa, for their state qualifying meet (SQM), but the trip was worth it – both the boys and girls are off to state.
DJ Wolfram:
The girls’ race was first, and the Indians were glad to have multi-sport star Bethany Warren load the bus with them. Just over 24 hours before they took off, it seemed like Warren wouldn’t make the trip. She had been the low runner this year but also plays on the Indians volleyball team, which advanced to the regional semifinal the same night. After some creative planning, a well-executed plan was in place for Warren to go to Dike with the cross country team and then fly to Estherville, yes, like in a plane, to compete with the Forest City volleyball team.
DJ Wolfram:
In cross country, before she made her cross-state trip, Warren finished sixth overall at the SQM, helping Forest City finish second as a team and qualify for state next week. Warren’s time of 19:44.9 breaks her school record, which she had just set a couple of meets prior.
Coach DJ Wolfram thought the best race of the night came out of senior Zoey Holmes.
DJ Wolfram:
Holmes finished 18th overall in a time of 20:47.8, which was her personal record and gave the Indians another top-20 finishers behind Warren and freshman Carmen Sharp, who finished in 11th with a time of 20:16.1
Emilie and Claire Weaver finished back-to-back in 23rd and 24th place. Ashlee Aukes hit her PR time of 22:52.3 to finish 50th overall, and Taylor Gassman also PR’d with a time of 23:57.1 and finished in 65th place for the Indians.
DJ Wolfram:
The Indians return to the state cross-country meet for the first time since 2005, when they finished 12th overall. They will run on Saturday, October 28th at 10:30 AM in Fort Dodge at Lakeside.
Final Team Scores
| 5 | 10 | 17 | 21 | 28 | (33) | (36) |
| 6 | 11 | 18 | 23 | 24 | (49) | (64) |
| 2 | 3 | 8 | 40 | 46 | (56) | (63) |
| 1 | 16 | 22 | 31 | 32 | (34) | (35) |
| 14 | 15 | 25 | 27 | 30 | (41) | (58) |
| 13 | 26 | 38 | 43 | 44 | (47) | (60) |
| 4 | 12 | 29 | 54 | 66 | (70) | (72) |
| 9 | 20 | 50 | 53 | 59 | (61) | (65) |
| 7 | 39 | 42 | 52 | 55 | (57) | (62) |
| 37 | 48 | 51 | 67 | 69 | (71) | (75) |
| 19 | 45 | 68 | 73 | 74 | (76) |
The Forest City boys were SQM champions after narrowly edging out conference rival GHV, 68-69.
Forest City was led by sophomore Silas Gann, who ran a 7th-place race in a time of 16:58.6 and was joined in the top 10 by Keagan Albertson, who ran 17:05.7.
Coach Wolfram says with a young team, they’re just expected to go out and run hard – and so far, the good things have come.
The Forest City boys started the season unranked in Class 2A because of all the unknowns with so many new athletes, but if teams in the state didn’t know who they were before – they do now.
The Indians are currently ranked 6th in the IATC state rankings and are back at state for a second straight year. The Indians finished 15th overall last year and are looking to improve with a new look team this year.
The Indians’ other district runners were Cooper Blaser, 15th in 17:23.5, Holden Reynolds, 17th in 17:24.4, Ethan Bertram, 19th 17:27.0, Grant Gayther, 21st in 1736.1, and Daunta Berg in 23rd with a time of 17:45.2.
The boys will run after the girls on Saturday, the 28th at the state meet in Fort Dodge.
Final Team Scores
1 Forest City 68
| 7 | 10 | 15 | 17 | 19 | (21) | (23) |
| 2 | 6 | 9 | 20 | 32 | (34) | (58) |
| 3 | 4 | 11 | 16 | 37 | (68) |
| 1 | 8 | 22 | 25 | 28 | (33) | (39) |
| 5 | 12 | 18 | 30 | 36 | (46) | (48) |
| 27 | 35 | 41 | 43 | 45 | (47) | (62) |
| 13 | 26 | 49 | 51 | 52 | (72) | (73) |
| 29 | 31 | 44 | 55 | 56 | (64) | (66) |
| 14 | 38 | 40 | 60 | 74 | (81) | (82) |
| 24 | 42 | 57 | 67 | 70 | (75) | (77) |
| 53 | 61 | 63 | 65 | 69 | (76) | (78) |
| 50 | 54 | 59 | 71 | 79 | (80) | (83) |
