The Washington Demons have risen to become the cream of the crop in Southeast Conference cross country, and they’re not planning on slowing down any time soon. A large chunk of the roster that won both boys’ and girls’ team titles in the Southeast last season is back, including every runner who represented the Demons at the Class 3A girls’ state championships on their way to a sixth-place finish as a team.

Leading that group will be sophomore Iris Dahl, who is currently the third-highest-ranked girls’ runner in 3A according to the Iowa Association of Track Coaches. Top-10 finishes at the conference meet and districts powered Dahl to state in her debut season, but she added one more medal by taking sixth place at state and running her fastest time of the season.

Fellow sophomore Angeline Anderson returns for the Demons from the state roster, as do juniors Quincy Griffis, Lauren Horak, Alyvia Anderson and Kendall Hinrichsen. Seniors Abbi Kleese and Giselle Marcelino are also expected to be featured in a number of races this fall.

For the Washington boys, all eyes will be on senior Micah Rees, who is trying to follow up a 2022 season where he earned a medal in every competition. Rees was the district runner-up with a time just a tick over 16 minutes flat last season and won the individual Southeast Conference title before finishing 13th at state.

Along with the seventh-ranked boys’ runner in 3A, the Demons bring back another state qualifier in junior Tyler Alderton. Sophomores Andrew Rees, Sawyer Tschantz and Drew Conrad are all contending to be varsity runners as well.

There is no more excited observer of the new season than head coach Stefanie Haworth, who tells KCII Sports that getting a team to be this good in an individual sport is about getting each individual to believe in themselves.

“Everybody is contributing to the team,” Haworth says. “No matter what place you are on that team, every person matters. [The runners] do a great job of supporting each other and just getting the program built from the ground up, Just watching them improve each and every time and be supportive of every single person on that team, it’s just a fun thing.”

Washington opens the 2023 cross country season by running at a meet at Anamosa this Saturday.