(Fort Dodge) Three individuals from Atlantic will run at Friday’s Class 3A State Cross Country Meet. The Trojans have one girls qualifier with Taylor McCreedy and two boys qualifiers with Craig Alan Becker and Zane Berg.
The 3A girls race is at 3:30 p.m. on Friday and the 3A boys are scheduled to compete at 4:00 p.m.
It’s a 4th straight appearance for McCreedy who finished 35th last year, 6th as a sophomore, and 20th in her freshman year. Heading into her 4th state meet, she knows all about the atmosphere in Fort Dodge. “It’s a lot different. No matter how much you try to mentally prepare for it, it is really hard to. At normal meets you can have landmarks, but at state there are just walls of people everywhere.”
Becker ran 23rd at the 2019 state meet. “This year I’m hoping to get top ten or top fifteen. I really wanted to get on that balcony. That was something I didn’t achieve last year, but I think I’m a lot more experienced running and especially at this course so I think that’s going to be a huge advantage for me.” Only two boys runners in Atlantic history have finished in the top ten. The most recent was Phoenix Shadden in 2016.
Berg finished 98th last year at state and 94th as a freshman in 2018. He ran a PR at the state qualifying meet in order to be an individual qualifier this year. “I just had to push myself. I had some help from Drew Engler, a teammate, and he just helped me push myself and break that barrier and find another gear. It felt amazing. I’m surprised I went sub-17 this year. I was hoping that was a senior goal, but we are moving up faster than I thought I would.”
Becker is ranked 11th and McCreedy is rated 23rd by the IATC.
