Comet cross country runners up for the challenge

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — McKayla Cole is not one to run from a challenge.

But the challenge to “3-peat” as the Northeast Iowa Conference girls cross country champion may require her to pick up the pace.

“I’m excited to have her in our conference now,” the Charles City senior said about friend and rival Ellie Friesen, who recently transferred from Osage to NEIC school Crestwood.

“I’ll get to run against her more often this year, and that’s going to push me even further,” said Cole, who has been running neck-and-neck against Friesen for some time in distance races even when they weren’t conference rivals.

At the Drake Relays last spring, Friesen placed 16th in the 3,000-meter run, a little more than a second ahead of Cole, who placed 18th.

At last year’s Cross Country State Championships, Cole placed third in the Class 3A race with a time of 19 minutes, 11.5 seconds; Friesen — then a sophomore — place ninth in the Class 2A race.

With the “assumption” that Cole will return to the state championships, defending individual champion Julia Schumacher (from Class 3A team state champ Assumption) will likely also be there. Ditto for 2015 runner-up Kourtney Delperdang from Spirit Lake.

“I think I could do it this year,” said Cole, who finished about 10 seconds behind Schumacher and 7 seconds behind Delperdang.

“I don’t know how much faster they have gotten over the summer,” Cole said of the two underclassmen, “all I know is that I got a greater mindset to win it this year.

“I’ve logged in more miles during the offseason than I’ve ever done before.”

Charles City senior Alysha Bilharz is also looking to return to state after being a part of the Comets’ state qualifying team in 2013 when she was a freshman.

“It was a great experience to make it down with my first high school cross country team,” said Bilharz, who with Cole, Sarah Turpen and Whitney Martin are four returning all-NEIC runners.

“We have a good chance at making it down again as a team,” said Bilharz, who was part of the team’s biennial trip to Colorado several weeks ago.

“It was fun training up there in the mountains,” she said. “The air was thinner … it was harder to run. You can feel the difference coming back here.”

The Comets’ boys team has two returning all-NEIC runners: junior Gavin Connell, who was a state qualifier last year, and senior Adam Stewart, who was all-conference in 2014.

“I feel a lot better this year,” Stewart said. “I had low iron and carotene issues last season.”

Also a track runner, Stewart takes more to a sprinter’s pace as his favorite race is the 200-meter run.

“Running both races helps the other,” Stewart said. “(Cross country) gives me the endurance to run through the 200, and running the 200 helps with my starts and finishes in cross country.”

After serving time as a JV runner, junior Chris Campbell is looking forward to his first varsity season with the Comets.

“I think cross country is the ultimate team sport,” Campbell said. “If you play football, you may spend most of the game on the sidelines if you’re not a starter.

“In cross country, everyone from top to bottom does the same mileage.”