It was a bittersweet evening at Solon Nature and Recreation Center on Wednesday for the Washington cross country teams when they competed in a class 3A state qualifying meet. The ultimate goal of qualifying as a team was not in store for both the boys and girls, but the orange and black will be represented at next week’s state meet with a pair of individuals advancing through.
It was a tough pill to swallow for the No. 16 ranked Demon boys, as they missed out on qualifying for their first team state trip in 23 years by one point. They finished fourth with 101 points, just being edged out by No. 11 Mount Vernon-Lisbon with 100. The Mustangs filled the 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, and 22nd spots. No. 4 Solon and No. 2 Marion also advanced to Fort Dodge with 70 and 20 points, respectively. Lance Sobaski and Micah Rees were able to crack the top 15 individually to move on. Sobaski punched his third ticket to state by being all alone in third place out of 84 runners in 16:15. Marion teammates Shane Erb and Jedidiah Osgood went one-two with matching times of 15:56.
Sobaski tells KCII Sports the experience of already being there will help him next week. “I already know the course and it will help a lot. It is a blessing to head back there for my third time. Golf courses always have a good amount of hills and it will be nice to know how to break them up.” Rees is a first time qualifier by finishing ninth in 16:56. He is pumped for the opportunity ahead. “It feels great. This was my goal heading into the season and I achieved it. I put in a lot of work and I saw the fruit of that.” Other scored Demon runs included Elijah Morris 24th (17:54), Tyler Alderton 27th (17:59), and Drew Horak 38th (18:25).
The No. 18 Demon girls finished fifth out of 10 teams with 128 points. No. 19 Marion was third with 89, No. 12 Mount Vernon/Lisbon second with 74, and No. 1 Solon won with 26. All five freshman scored runners finished within 11 seconds of each other with Lauren Horak in 25th (21:09), Quincy Griffis 28th (21:16), Alyvia Anderson 29th (21:18), Kendall Hinrichsen 30th (21:20), and Isabella Lujan 31st (21:20).
The team season comes to a close for both squads with numerous meet titles on their resume including the first time ever where the boys and girls swept the Southeast Conference titles. Sobaski and Rees will run in Fort Dodge on Friday, October 29th at 3 p.m. at Lakeside Golf Course.