Comets out to distance themselves from the crowd at XC state championships

By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
CHARLES CITY — If you’re trying to run from the crowd, this Saturday’s State Cross Country Meet is not the place to attempt it.

Charles City’s Lydia Staudt found that out last year when she competed in her first state XC race as a freshman.

“Most meets I’ve run at, there are spots along the course where you’re running all by yourself,” Lydia Staudt said last year after being the second Comet runner in while helping the Comets place 12th in the Class 3A girls race.

“But out here, it’s a lot different. People are all over cheering you on. It really makes it exciting.”

Last season, Staudt was excited just to get down state.

“I was really nervous about the state qualifier,” she said. “When we qualified, I was relieved and I wasn’t that nervous going to state.

“It was just that I didn’t expect that many people to be down there.”

Staudt will know more what to expect her second time down after the Comets qualified to state for the fourth-straight year by way of their third-place showing last week at the Class 3A Independence SQ.

Though the state meet will be at the same site — Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge — the conditions are due to be a little different At last year’s race, it was sunny with temperatures touching the 70s. This Saturday’s forecast calls for partially cloudy skies with a high in the lower 40s.

“I don’t mind running in the cold,” Staudt said. “You’ve just got to dress for it.”

Finishing ahead of Staudt last year for the Comets was Kiki Connell, who didn’t medal after placing sixth as a freshman at the 2017 state race.

During her current junior season, Connell has bounced back and then some while setting a school record with a 5K time of 18 minutes, 30 seconds at the Northeast Iowa Conference Meet before winning her first SQ meet.

With a time of 19:01, Connell edged Wahlert junior Gabby Moran by a half-second. At last year’s Class 3A girls state race, Moran placed third behind champion Janette Schraft of Glenwood and runner-up Adrianna Katcher of Center Point-Urbana.

Schraft has continued her cross country career at Iowa State. Katcher will be back in a quest to win her third XC state title after Schraft thwarted a would-be 3-peat last year.

Other Comet runners who were part of the SQ lineup are seniors Mackenzy Bilharz and Mindi Neve — the former of whom will be competing in her fourth state race; and juniors Libby McKeag, Monika Kacprzak and Lydia Thompson.

The Girls 3A race will start at noon; the Girls 1A race — which will include Nashua-Plainfield’s Chloe Matthews and Jennah Carpenter — will start at 2 p.m.