(Avoca) AHSTW put together a strong performance in Audubon on Friday and will head the state cross country meet in Fort Dodge as state qualifying meet champs.
The Lady Vikes went toe-to-toe with Lo-Ma on Friday and won the meet with 44 points compared to the Panther’s 59. At the top of the heap for AHSTW were a pair of seniors that have never missed a state meet. Julia Kock ran 2nd and Chloe Falkena placed 3rd to keep their state meet streak alive. Kock says, “It’s incredible. If you would have told me this freshman year I’d be like, no. All the hard work these last four years definitely has paid off. I’m just proud of where our team has come. Even throughout this year we’ve all grown so much. It’s very emotional. I feel proud of what we’ve done as a team. Cross Country has been one of my favorite high school experiences.”
Falkena adds, “It’s awesome to be here because we have six seniors out of our seven. It’s amazing to be with them. I’m always so excited to be at state, because the energy is so crazy.” This is the 3rd time in the last four years AHSTW has qualified as a full team, it’s an unmatched stretch of success in their program history. “We went to our gym and looked at our banners. We want to put another one up there. It had been until 2001 was our last banner up there. Being able to put those up there and put those up tere and leave our mark on this school and build a really good program is awesome for us. I’m really proud of this team and where we’ve come from. We had no idea what we were doing and now we are here.
Kock and Falkena aren’t the only reasons the Lady Vikes will end their year in Fort Dodge. Jade Draman (11th), Kailey Jones (16th), and Holly Hoepner (17th) all finished in the top 20 at Audubon’s state qualifying meet to aid the cause. Additional varsity runners are Jordan Blotzer and Claire Denning. Saturday’s Class 1A girls race is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.
Jones is a cross country newcomer and dual sported with volleyball. “I’ve been doing summer cross country workouts ever since I was a freshman. I really wanted to give it a shot this year and I’m so glad that I did.” She says she’s enjoyed her teammates. “Just the environment that we have makes running and coming to practice every day fun.” Jones admits it has taken some balance to manage it all. “Just being able to get all of your workouts in and making sure you are doing your best in both. Once you find that balance it’s been a breeze and having coaches that work together really well has really helped me out.”
At the Audubon State Qualifying Meet KSOM Sports talked with all five Lady Vike scoring runners:
