“STATE”-LY RETURN!! Kee girls cross country team runs to team championship to earn second consecutive State Meet qualification
Championship effort returns them to season grand finale ... Members of the Kee girls cross country team display their banners commemorating their State Qualifying Meet team championship at Cedar Rapids Thursday, October 18 and second consecutive qualification for the Class 1A State Meet. Pictured left to right are juniors Ella Strong, Makayla Peters, Laura Colsch and Rachel Walleser, seniors Makayla Walleser and Katie Brennan, and freshmen Reagan Mudderman and Haley Meyer. Photo courtesy of the Kee High School Yearbook. View and find out how to purchase this photo and many more by clicking on the Photo Galleries link on this website.
Competing in a field that featured four teams rated among Class 1A’s top 15 teams, including three in the latest top-five rankings, the Kee girls cross country team topped all that high regard to emerge as the team champion at its Class 1A State Qualifying Meet hosted by Cedar Rapids Kennedy Thursday, October 18.
Undoubtedly fueling the fourth-rated Lady Hawks’ title run was a runner-up finish at their own Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) Meet to a fifth-rated South Winneshiek squad that denied a Kee repeat UIC championship just a week earlier, an inspiration that Kee cross country coach Pat Wagner feels not only motivated his girls to not let that happen again at this next level but also catapulted his crew past a third-rated Denver team by a double-digit final margin of Kee’s 68 points to 77 for Denver.
“The girls went out and did their jobs,” Coach Wagner said. “They competed really well. We were disappointed after placing second in conference and ran with a lot more energy at the State Qualifier. To qualify for State a second straight year is a solid achievement. The girls have big goals and it was good to place first in districts after being Conference runner-up this year and district runner-up last season.”
GIRLS TEAM SCORES
KEE 68; Denver 77; Marquette 103; South Winneshiek 107; Central Elkader 139; Nashua-Plainfield 152; Belle Plaine 185; Riceville 236; Clayton Ridge 246; MFL/MarMac 248; Wapsie Valley 280; BCLUW 310; North Butler 361; Edgewood-Colesburg 369; Postville 403
The Kee cross country girls are now scheduled to compete in the Class 1A girls race at 2 p.m. this Saturday, October 27 at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course about seven miles north of Fort Dodge. The season grand finale is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. with the Class 4A girls race, with the Class 4A boys slated to begin at 11:30 a.m. That same schedule trend, every half hour, is planned to play out for Class 3A, 2A and then 1A girls followed by their respective boys races, with the Class 1A Awards Ceremony slated to be held after the Class 1A boys race, at approximately 3 p.m. Fellow Allamakee County distance dandies, the Waukon girls cross country team, will also be competing that day in the Class 2A race scheduled for 1 p.m.
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