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HCHS junior Jessie Byrnes (28th) was the Cyclone girls' top finisher at the state meet.
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FORT DODGE -- It may not have been the ideal season finale they had in mind, but the Harlan Community girls cross country team celebrated the end of yet another season in Fort Dodge on Saturday - right where they hoped they'd wind up when summer workouts kicked off in July.
Competing in the State Cross Country Championships for the sixth straight season, the Cyclone girls placed 12th out of 15 Class 3-A qualifiers with a team score of 267. Dubuque Wahlert won the 3-A girls' title with an 84, followed by Decorah (96) and Xavier of Cedar Rapids (138).
Atlantic, led by individual 3-A champion Ali Krogman, finished 10th with a 251.
HCHS entered the state meet at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course ranked seventh in Class 3-A, which was also their final state placing the last two years. Outside of junior Jessie Byrnes' 28th-place showing, however, the Cyclones were unable to land any finishers in the top half of the 3-A girls' field on a sunny, cool and very windy Halloween day.
Freshman Jess Feldman and sophomore Cari Freml finished within one second of each other in 70th and 71st, respectively. Sophomore Shelbie Jacobsen (83rd) and junior Ellen Klitgaard (87th) also finished close together to round out the team scoring, while seniors Jenny Hosack and Becca Pauley placed 99th and 102nd out of 121 total runners.
Cyclone head coach Doug Renkly believes the team was largely recovered from illnesses that bothered them in the days leading up to regionals last Monday, but said it just wasn't a day where everything clicked. Nonetheless, Renkly was very proud of the effort he saw on the course.
"We struggled a little bit, but I thought, all in all, everybody ran extremely well," he said. "It's hard to get everybody on the same page on the same day. It doesn't happen very often. But we have no regrets. There's no 'would've, should've, could've.' We put it out there as hard as we could on the day that we needed to, so wherever the chips fall . . . they fall."
Byrnes, who also led HCHS with sixth-place efforts in the recent conference and regional meets, capped a strong finish to the '09 season with a 28th-place time of 16:14. Byrnes ran a strong, consistent race to finish 47 spots higher than a year ago at state. She had previously placed 36th as a freshman.
"I'm very pleased with it," she said. "I was shooting for top 25, top 30, so I was very happy to finish in that range.
"The start was very quick and a little faster than I was used to, but once I got going I just settled in and it felt good. There were some sloppy, sloppy spots, but I like mud, so it was all good."
Learning from the experience of two previous state meets, Byrnes said she was able to stay relaxed amidst a frenzied atmosphere and stick to her race plan.
"You've just got to relax and not think about it and just breath steady," she said. "That's the biggest thing probably - just breath steady the whole way.
"I was very careful not to start (my kick) too soon, because there were some girls who did, and that's how I ended up passing a girl on the finish."
Coach Renkly credits Byrnes' typically strong races to her training in practice.
"She's just very good at mentally preparing herself. During practice she trains with a definite purpose, both mentally and physically," he noted. "I'm very proud of the way she performed today. She stepped up, as (did) Jess Feldman. I thought Jess Feldman looked extremely good. Actually, everybody did. We finished well together. Just from the limited (time) I get to see people out here, it looked like we ran pretty well."
Among the Cyclones' four runners who also competed in last year's state meet, only Byrnes ran a faster time on Saturday. She was among the minority, however, as the blustery conditions created a slower winning time in all eight divisions.
Hosack, who was the Cyclone front-runner in about half the meets this year, ran the team's third-fastest one-mile split time before ending up with the sixth-best time for the entire 4,000 meters. Hosack was this year's only Cyclone senior to compete in four state meets.
"Without Jenny Hosack, we're not here to begin with," Renkly said. "Jenny's been a cornerstone of this program for four years, and we'll take her any day of the week. She's a tough kid and I wouldn't trade her for the world."
Renkly also wouldn't trade the fruits of another outstanding regular season for a higher state meet finish. The Cyclones were victorious in eight out of 11 meets prior to state, including their sixth straight Hawkeye 10 Conference Meet title, and they placed second in the other three.
Renkly and Byrnes both agreed that Saturday's minor setback won't put a damper on the overall campaign.
"We had some tremendous meets and won some very close ones," Renkly said. "It is frustrating for everybody to work as hard as we do and have the expectations as high as we do, and then kind of see it unravel a little bit and not be able to do anything about it (because of) health and illness. But we stepped up, we didn't give ourselves a way out (or) a back door. We said we were going to come here and do whatever we can, and they did."
Byrnes, who hopes to become a four-time state qualifier next year, added: "We had a fantastic year. I'm so proud of our whole team, and I'm just so pleased to have been a part of it. I couldn't have asked for a better team."
2009 State Cross Country Championships
Saturday, Oct. 31: at Fort Dodge
Class 3-A Girls' Team Scores
1. Dubuque Wahlert 84, 2. Decorah 96, 3. Cedar Rapids Xavier 138, 4. Denver/Tripoli 142, 5. Pella 152, 6. Davenport Assumption 164, 7. Williamsburg 178, 8. Sioux City Heelan 202, 9. Benton, Van Horne 219, 10. Atlantic 251, 11. Estherville-Lincoln Central 254, 12. Harlan Community 267, 13. Garner-Hayfield/W. Hancock 293, 14. Ballard 296, 15. Boone 304.
Class 3-A Girls' Individual Top 10
1. Ali Krogman, Atlantic, 15:07; 2. Moran Lonning, Decorah, 15:16; 3. Alex Wilson, Mt. Vernon/Lisbon, 15:18; 4. Sarah Burnell, Grinnell, 15:20; 5. Anna Holdiman, Waverly-Shell Rock, 15:21; 6. Haley Stevens, Denver-Tripoli, 15:32; 7. Kaia Miller, Decorah, 15:35; 8. Erin Sawyers, Winterset, 15:37; 9. Steph Markey, Nevada, 15:38; 10. Kelsey Kirchoff, Denver/Tripoli, 15:41. Also - 12th: Alexa Beeck, Denison-Schleswig, 15:51.
HCHS Individual Results
28th: Jessie Byrnes, jr., 16:14; 70th: Jess Feldman, fr., 16:59; 71st: Cari Freml, so., 17:00; 83rd: Shelbie Jacobsen, so., 17:15; 87th: Ellen Klitgaard, jr., 17:20; 99th: Jenny Hosack, sr., 17:31; 102nd: Becca Pauley, sr., 17:36.
(4-kilometer times; 121 total runners)
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