(Area) The last 20 years of history for area teams at the state cross country meet has plenty of memorables. One that immediately comes to mind is Griswold’s Rebekah Topham becoming the first girls runner in state history to win four individual state championships. She wasn’t the only Tiger standout though, they won a state title under coach Jane Chaillie in 2012.
Unfortunately the archives through the Iowa Girls High School Record Union aren’t as elaborate as the boy’s information kept by the Iowa High School Athletic Association, but the good news is we were able to browse through each state meet since 2000 to come up with the following list of state qualifying teams, individual all-staters, and other notable information.
This is the 4th installment of our history books series. Baseball, Softball, and Boys Cross Country have been featured so far this week. Football is up next.
Girls State Cross Country History Since 2000
**Cross Country went from three classes to four classes following the 2002 season.
ACGC
London James was 16th for Adair-Casey in both 2005 and 2006. James ran with Adair-Casey/CAM in her junior season and moved up to 6th in 2007. As a senior the combined enrollment with Adair-Casey and CAM pushed them to Class 2A and she placed 18th. Emma Swanson placed 18th for Guthrie Center in 2015. 2016 was the first year of ACGC and Kate Crawford put them on the map right away with her state championship. Emma Swanson was 8th that year while Keely Vasey, Lauryn Embleton, Reagan Rumelhart, Malena Rumelhart, and Jackie Trujillo-Garcia rounded out an 11th place team. Crawford was 3rd and Swanson 23rd in 2017. The team returned in 201 and placed 15th, with Crawford 9th overall. In 2019 they bumped up to 2A and finished 5th. Crawford, a UNI commit, was 3rd overall. Rylee Sloss (14th) was an all-stater in 2019. The rest of the 5th place team had Kiersten Knobbe, Jorja Hoover, Alyson Embleton, Jenna Stringer, and Taylor Lemke.
AHSTW
By far the biggest achievement as a team came last season when the Lady Vikes hoisted a 3rd place trophy in 2019. The group had Ryann Portch, Chloe Falkena, Julia Kock, Holly Hoepner, Jade Draman, Jordyn Blotzer, and Grace Luna. Portch starred at state by placing 8th while Falkena was 20th. Ashley Adams has been among the program’s biggest individual standouts. She was 22nd in 1A in 2000, 28th in 2001, and 5th in her senior year in 2002. The Lady Vikes made their first ever team appearance in 2015 and placed 13th. Senior Heidi Hall led the group in 15th place individually. Freshmen Chloe Falkena, Julia Kock, Jade Draman, Clarie Denning, and Martha Pace made up the rest of the team. Kock and Falkena returned as individuals in 2018.
Atlantic
Coach Bruce Henderson’s squad placed 8th in 2000 led by a couple of freshmen as their top two finishers–Cortney Jacobs was 6th and Courtney Blake 21st. The next season they were 3rd with Jacobs as the individual runner-up. The rest of the 2001 deck team had Krysta Metz, Brigham Hoegh, Katie Winston, Rachel Smith, Beth Markham, and Darci Culver. The Trojans came in 6th in 2002 with Jacobs placing 32nd. The ’02 group also had Whitney Jacobs, Bethany Rogers, Steph Ethofer, Markham, Winston, and Hoegh. Atlantic didn’t make it as a team in 2003, but Jacobs qualified as an individual and posted the third top ten finish of her career with an 8th place run. Ali Krogman’s fifth place performance in 2008 highlighted the team’s 8th place finish. Other varsity members in ’08 were Kaley Stender, Michelle Buboltz, Palmer Hoegh, Amanda Gude, Misty Fleagle, and Katie Blake. Krogman, who was the first ever four-time Hawkeye Ten Conference champ, would add an individual title in 2009 on a team that placed 10th. Krogman’s junior year brought a 7th place individual finish and they were 13th as a team. She capped off her career by finishing 6th in 2011. Tiffany Williams was a four time qualifier with finishes of 64th, 24th, 7th, and 21st. Taylor McCreedy is on track to appear at four state meets. She was 20th as a freshman, 6th as a sophomore, and 35th in 2019. Atlantic was 7th at state as a team in 2018 under head coach Dan Vargason. Team members were McCreedy, Pluma Pross, Madison Botos, Ashley Wendt, Karsyn Rush, Addie DeArment, and Katie Saluk.
According to Henderson, in 1981 the team finished 3rd with Billie Hoover 6th individually. In 1982 Bernice Elliott was 10th. Mindy Larsen had a 4th place finish in the late 80’s.
Audubon
Emily Lynam, Sara Boehm, Gina Baier, Whitney Henke, Abby Best, and Sarah Best made up Audubon’s state qualifying team in 2001. Megan Deist was 10th as a freshman in 2010. She was 37th in 2011 and 25th in 2013. Grace Slater became a two-time individual qualifier as a sophomore in 2019 and placed 19th.
CAM
Katlyn Holaday made the first of her two individual state appearances in 2015 when she placed 23rd.
Exira-EHK
The Spartan’s lone team qualification came in 2013 when they were 12th. The team had Grace Hoflen, Emily Copic, Claire Paulsen, Savannah Hays, and Gabbie Bintner. Hoflen finished 32nd. Copic would return to state as an individual qualifier in each of the next three years.
Griswold
Jayme Hoffman was 32nd and 21st over the last two years of her career in 2002 and 2003. In 2007, Kaitlan Moore who had already been multi-year individual qualifier, was joined by her full team and they placed 10th. Lauren Moore, Brandi Freund, Mandy Nicklaus, Rachel Northrup, Emma Maass, and Anna Kline were on that team. In 2008 they placed 11th with Freund being the top finisher at state, joined by Lauren Moore, Northrup, Nicklaus, Maas, Brittan Haynes, and Lauren Fast. Griswold was 4th in 2009 with Rachel Northrup running 14th followed by Lauren Moore, Allison Young, Jordyn Sindt, Bailey Powers, Larissa Backhaus, and Lauren Fast. Griswold placed 6th in 2010 with Northrup’s 23rd place run being their top finish. Rebekah Topham arrived on the scene in 2011 and led the team to new heights. Topham won state all four years of high school and is currently starring for Wichita State. In her freshman year of high school (2011) the team placed 3rd. Jordyn Sindt, Alyx Flippin, Larissa Backhaus, Allison Young, Bailey Powers, and Bridget Maurer were all on that squad. Six of those seven runners returned in 2012 to win a state championship. The only difference from the 2011 lineup was Payton Rush instead of Powers. They were 7th in 2013 with Rebekah Topham, Flippin, Alyssa Wyman, Joanna Topham, Maurer, Kayla Kirchhoff, and Leah Lappe. They were 3rd in 2014. Anna Young and Payton Rush were two of the new faces in the varsity lineup that year, replacing Joanna Topham and Kirchhoff. Griswold placed 14th in 2015. Joanna Topham had a breakout performance as a senior in 2016. She placed 16th and the Tigers were 8th in the team scoring. Topham was followed by Charli Adams, Anna Young, Loryn Peterson, Alisha Seyler, Courtney Hering, and Faith Rossell.
Harlan
Regina Reinig placed 7th as a sophomore in 2004. She helped the Cyclones to a 9th place team finish. Harlan won a team championship in 2005 with Reinig as the individual champion in Class 3A. Another highlight came from Jessica Christensen who was 4th. The rest of the championship team members were Jill Rueschenberg, Ranae Schnack, Lindsey Hough, Marissa Dargy, and Katie Kroger. Reinig’s senior year in 2006 brought a 4th place finish and Jill Rueschenberg was 15th that year on a state runner-up team. Schnack, Megan Jacobsen, Janae Williams, Jenny Hosack, and Katie Kroger rounded out the 2006 varsity lineup. Hosack led the team’s 7th place showing in 2007. They were also 7th in 2008, 12th in 2009, 15th in 2010, 11th in 2011, 5th in 2012 (led by Jessica Feldman 11th overall), 14th in 2014, 15th in 2015, 8th, in 2018, and 4th in 2019. Lucy Borkowki had the best individual finish for the Cyclone’s at the latest state meet, running 19th. Others on the varsity were Abby Alberti, Kaia Bieker, Liv Freund, Abi Albertson, Brecken VanBaale, and Olivia Anderson.
Nodaway Valley
Megan Winkelmann was 22nd as a freshman in 2001 and then won it all as a sophomore in 2002. The team qualified in 2001 and 2002. The ’02 team had a 6th place finish with Winkelmann joined by Constance Eshelman, Ali Miller, Gentri Rice, Laura McCann, and Lynn Frank. Eshelman was 20th individually and Miller came in 26th. Alyse Herr’s 10th place run in 2005 helped the Wolverines earn runner-up team honors. Others on the 2nd place squad were Alison Mostaert, Rachel Herr, Patrese Montgomery, Alecia Havens, Teresa Nelson, and Heather Walk. They bumped up to Class 2A in 2006 and took 3rd place led by Alyse Herr in 7th. Rachel Herr was 20th and the rest of the team featured Mostaert, Havens, Rachel Held, Lauren Bricker, and Morgan Bax. By 2007 they were back in Class 1A and placed 7th. Bethni Johnson, Brittni Johnson, and Paige Jones all placed in the top 20 in 2008 to spark a team runner-up finish. Lauren Bricker, Susan Herr, Kristin Kincaide, and Rachel Held made up the rest of the 2008 team. Several members were back the following year (2009) and they won a state title. Herr placed 6th overall for the championship team. Kristin Kincaide, Bricker, Bethni Johnson, Brittni Johnson, Jones, and Robyn Kincaide were on the title team. Destiny Scar’s strong career started in 2012 and where she was 16th. Scar placed 8th as a sophomore and 5th as a senior in her return from injury. Reagan Weinheimer was 5th as a freshman in 2015. Weinheimer and Sophia Broers were individual qualifiers in 2018. In 2019 they qualified as a team for the first time in ten years, eventually placing 8th. Broers led the way in 14th while Weinheimer, Lily Day, Abby Engles, Mallory Kuhns, Erin Ford, and Madison Van Otterloo were all on the team.
Riverside
The Lady Dawgs placed 13th in 2004. Freshman Amanda Vorthmann led the team in 38th place. Vorthmann made it back to state as a sophomore. Alexis Post made the first of her four state appearances in 2015. She made the top 25 in each of her last three years and improved her placing every season–23rd, 14th, and 12th.
