Must be the Socks
Competing as the “Charles City Run Club”, members from the Comet girls cross country team finished sixth out of 65 teams in the open division at the Nike Cross Country Regional Heartland event in South Dakota. From left, Mackenzy Bilharz, Bailey Mitchell, Gillian King, Alysha Bilharz, Mariah McKenzie, Sarah Turpen, McKayla Cole and Whitney Martin.
Charles City runners finish season in style at multi-state meet
By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
Sarah Turpen has always been prepared for the end, but this time the finality was — excuse the redundancy — final.
“Maybe because before I knew there was another season the following year,” said Turpen, who just finished her cross country career at Charles City.
Turpen will run again as a Comet come track season, and has aspirations of running in college.
The State Cross Country Meet, from where Charles City placed third in Class 3A, was Turpen’s final sanctioned high school cross country race. But the team wasn’t ready to disband, yet.
“It was a perfect finish to the season for us,” Turpen said of the Nike Cross Regional Heartland event held Nov. 13 at Yankton Trail Park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Turpen and Comet teammates Alysha Bilharz, Mackenzy Bilharz, McKayla Cole, Gillian King, Whitney Martin and Mariah McKenzie competed as the “Charles City Run Club” in the Girls Open Invitation division.
In one of the division’s split races, the Charles City Run Club placed fourth with state runner-up Cole leading the way with a 5K time of 18 minutes, 48 seconds, which was good enough for fourth place.
Turpen placed 41st with a personal-best time of 20:18.
“It was like running against the competition at state … but just a lot more competition,” Turpen said.
The meet attracted runners from seven states: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Out of 65 teams in its division, CCRC placed 6th.
Though the Comet runners were fitted with new uniforms this season, competing as a club rather than a high school team they chose to dress more independently for the meet.
“We all wore long pink ‘Dog’ socks,” said sophomore Martin, who placed 21st with a time of 19:56.
Charles City head girls cross country coach Amanda Rahmiller made the trip with the team.
“But I was only a spectator,” said Rahmiller, who also ran in the event’s community run.
“It was fun to watch her run,” Martin said of Rahmiller, who finished under 24 minutes.
“That was not a personal best,” Rahmiller said.
Though the Nike series has been around for awhile, this was the first time a group of girls from Charles City ran in it.
“It was something I told them about,” Rahmiller said. “I never had a group like this, and I thought it would be a good opportunity for them.”
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