Two Washington Demon cross-country runners once again took their place among the state’s best by running top-10 times and earning all-state medals at this year’s Class 3A championships Saturday at Kennedy Park in Fort Dodge. Washington senior Micah Rees finished fourth in the boys’ race with a time of 15 minutes 47.9 seconds, while Demon sophomore Iris Dahl was fifth among 3A girls in 18 minutes 57-and-a-half seconds.

Rees concluded his brilliant cross-country career at Washington by not only getting a top-five finish, but in turn ensuring he did so in every race this season and earned a medal in every race over the last two years. Rees was also leader of the pack for a Demon boys’ team that finished fifth in 3A with a score of 186 points.

While he did not medal, sophomore Andrew Rees ran a strong time of 16:56, as did junior Tyler Alderton in just over 17 minutes and senior Lane Schrock in 17:12. After the race, Micah Rees told KCII Sports he was proud of himself and his teammates for giving one more great effort this season.

“It’s definitely an amazing feeling to see friends all so close together [and] running strong,” Rees said. “It was just amazing also, at the very end, when we’re all finishing, it just seemed like within seconds we were already done, and what felt like an eternity really just came down to the last few seconds.”

On the girls’ side, Dahl has now won a medal at state and finished top 10 in Class 3A twice in as many seasons. With the 2023 season concluded, Washington cross country will now be saying goodbye to seniors like Micah Rees, Schrock, Andrew Shepherd, Kael Malichky, Isaiah Morris, Taylor Bartholomew, Amelia Dahl, Abigail Kleese, Ada Kendall, Giselle Marcelino, Cecilia Murphy, Jetzibe Sanchez, Aliyah Jara and Dilan Aslan.