Washington Demon cross country made history last night, sending both teams to the Class 3A state championships for the first time in school history after both the boys and the girls finished top three at their district meet at Pella Sports Park.
The Washington boys took second as a team, posting a score of 71 points that was 25 less than third place. Senior Tyler Alderton led the Demons with a time of 16 minutes 29 seconds, good enough for third place overall, while junior Andrew Rees was not far behind in fifth by crossing the finish line in 16 minutes 31 seconds.
Junior Sawyer Tschantz would have also been an individual state qualifier for the Demons after he clocked in at 16:58 to finish 12th. Sophomore Ethan Hotchkiss and freshman Parker Tschantz also made the top 40, and after the meet, Alderton told KCII Sports that they needed everyone to contribute in order to earn back-to-back appearances at the state meet.
“It’s definitely nice to see these young guys really perform and work together,” Alderton said. “We’ve lost some great seniors in the past, and it’s really good to see these new guys come up, step up and really work hard.”
The Washington girls earned some sweet redemption by punching their ticket to state for the second time in three years. After coming up just a few points short last year, the Demons’ score of 96 was able to edge out fourth-ranked Fort Madison by a point for third place in Pella.
Junior Iris Dahl paced Washington with a time of 19:14 and was fifth overall, while top-25 times from seniors Kendall Hinrichsen, Lauren Horak, Quincy Griffis and Alyvia Anderson gave the Demons what they needed to secure a berth in Fort Dodge. Horak said the feeling of a return trip to state was as good as it gets.
“It feels amazing,” Horak said. “[It’s] so good, the work’s paying off. I think we all remember how it felt to lose and to be so short of [state], and so all season long, we’ve been thinking about [how] this is our goal.”
After the meet, Washington head coach Stefanie Haworth marveled at her teams’ accomplishments.
“It is amazing,” Haworth said. “Such a great night. Both teams left everything out there, and everything worked in our favor, and it was a great night for us.”
The two Demon teams have now combined to finish inside the top five in the team standings all but once this season. Washington will compete at the Class 3A state meet next Friday in Fort Dodge.