Comets Nick Williams and Xander Graeser finish cross country careers at their fourth state meet

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

FORT DODGE — At Friday’s Class 3A boys 5K at the State Cross Country Championships, Charles City seniors Nick Williams and Xander Graeser ran like they had been there before.

Coming off the best performances of their careers at the state-qualifier a week-and-a-half before, Williams finished 31st with a time of 16 minutes, 46 seconds, and Graeser placed 50th with a time of 17 minutes, 7 seconds.

For both Comets, it was the fourth state meet for which they qualified as individuals. Only one other Charles City male runner, three-time state champion and Iowa Track and Field Hall of Famer Isaac Wendland, qualified for XC state as an individual.

“I thought it was a good race for me,” said Williams, who was recently named 2024 Academic All-State in XC by the Iowa Association of Track Coaches. “The weather conditions were good for running, and it’s always an honor to be in a race like this.”

Williams’s time was 7 seconds slower than from last year’s state race where he finished 25th. Graeser’s time on Friday was his best at the state meet.

At the previous state-qualifier at Wartburg College, Graeser and Williams improved in great strides from their previous personal-records as Graeser’s SQ time of 16:14 and Williams’s SQ time of 16:22 placed them 14th and 28th, respectively, among the Comet All-Time Top 50 Male XC times.

“It probably won’t sink in for a while that it’s all over,” Graeser said after the race. “It’s going to be strange not training to run cross country again.”

Though Williams and Graeser have run their last prep XC race, they still have plenty of running left to do during the remainder of their high school sport careers. Both will be returning state-qualifiers in track this spring, and both will play basketball this season for new Comet head coach David Rottinghaus, whose uptempo style will require resilient legs and well-conditioned lungs.

“I am going to miss both very much,” Charles City head coach Ryan Rahmiller said. “Great athletes, but just a bright spot in my day in the fall to get to spend the afternoon with these past four years. I am grateful I will get to spend the spring with them in track, where both are destined to have great seasons.

“This (whole) senior group is a great group of people; reliable, fun to work with and be around.”

According to some pre-race research by Rahmiller, Williams and Graeser were the only competitors in the field of 130 Class 3A boy runners who have qualified for state as individuals.

“Some may have been here four times, but made it once or twice as members of a state-qualifying team,” Rahmiller said.

As freshmen, Williams and Graeser were part of the Comets’ 2021 state-qualifying team, but also made the Top 15 individual cut.

As referenced by Williams, running conditions Friday morning at Lakeside Municipal Park proved to be ideal as temperatures rose steadily from a dawn glazed with frost. With virtually no wind to contend with on a course laid out to give runners down-graded momentum to the finish, the Class 3A boys race proved to be remarkably fast with winner, Western Dubuque junior Quentin Nauman, becoming the second Iowa prep XC runner to complete a 5K in under 15 minutes. In the previous Class 3A girls race, Pella junior Marissa Ferebee set a state record with a winning time of 16:30.

Gilbert, with four medalists and a fifth running finishing just outside the Top 15, won the Class 3A boys race with a state-record 33 team points for its second-straight title.

“I thought both boys ran well,” Rahmiller said. “Nick tried going out slower than he had the past few meets and fought back. Xander got out fast, but looked like he went into some oxygen debt in that last mile. It’s a meet where you have to be particularly bold off the gun and hang. It’s easy, however, to get jammed up with the traffic at the state meet, especially around (or) near where those two typically run time-wise and both had to fight through traffic.”

* There was another local runner who qualified to the State XC Championship for the fourth time as an individual.

Nashua-Plainfield standout senior Kadence Huck placed sixth in Saturday’s Class 1A girls race with a season-best 5K time of 19:11. It was the second time Huck placed in the Top 10 during her XC career as she placed ninth during her sophomore year before rebounding from a 67th-place showing last season.

Huck is an eight-time state champion in track with one more season forthcoming.

In the following Class 1A boys race, North Butler’s lone representative, sophomore Ezra Almelien, placed 54th with a time of 17:29.

State Cross Country Championships

Nov. 1-2

AT LAKESIDE MUNICIPAL PARK, FORT DODGE

Class 3A Boys 5K

TEAM PLACING — 1. Gilbert 33, 2. Des Moines Christian 78, 3. Pella 92, 4. Decorah 142, 5. Mount Vernon-Lisbon 196, 6. Grinnell 206, 7. Washington 219, 8. Central DeWitt 257, 9. ADM Adel 263, 10. Assumption Davenport 265, 11. Moc-Floyd Valley 265, 12. Bondurant-Farrar 266, 13. Sioux Center 268, 14. Clear Creek-Amana 273, 15. Carlisle 286.

TOP 15 MEDALISTS — 1. Quentin Nauman (Western Dubuque) 14:59.6, 2. Canaan Dunham (P) 15:16.9, 3. Caleb Ten Pas (DMC) 15:27.0, 4. Jacob Tallman (G) 15:30.4, 5. Logan Bleich (G) 15:34.3, 6. Carson Squiers (G) 15:38.2, 7. Grady Olberding (MVL) 15:54.7, 8. Austin Soldwisch (Waverly-Shell Rock) 15:58.3, 9. Josh Hagenberg (DMC) 16:17.4, 10. Kael Streeter (C) 16:17.8, 11. Isaac Rankin (Knoxville) 16:17.9, 12. Emmett Barber (G) 16:20.3, 13. Andrew Rees (W) 16:20.8, 14. Luke Hagenberg (DMC) 16:25.7, 15. Jayden Brookins (Wahlert Dubuque) 16:25.9.

CHARLES CITY — 31. Nick Williams 16:46.0, 50. Xander Graeser 17:07.6.