Iowa Mennonite junior Kurt Beachy had qualified for the State Cross Country Meet as an individual, but for him it was all about the team. The IMS harriers as well as his family joined him for the …
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Iowa Mennonite junior Kurt Beachy had qualified for the State Cross Country Meet as an individual, but for him it was all about the team. The IMS harriers as well as his family joined him for the almost 200-mile one-way trip to Fort Dodge, cheered him on as he ran the race, then all celebrated his 14th placing 16:58 finish at the Golden Corral that night.
“It was fun to have everybody there,” Beachy said.
Beachy also enjoyed his 14th place finish at State, capping what has been an excellent season for the IMS runner.
“It feels pretty good,” Beachy said of the experience. “I was very happy with the finish. I didn’t run all that well, but I was still happy with the finish.”
IMS coach Mark Hostetler was also happy with the way the junior ran last Saturday.
“Kurt kept his head together and ran a real good race,” Hostetler reported. “He was off a little bit from his best time, but he ran against some real good people and placed pretty high up.”
Beachy had been ranked 17th in the state in the latest individual poll and had finished in 30th in last year’s state meet with a time of 17:05. This year, both Beachy and Hostetler had aimed for a finish among the state’s elite runners.
“My goal was to be in the top-10 but I wasn’t sure how realistic that was, so I was happy with 14th,” Beachy said.
“We were shooting for the top-10 and had he run his best we could have done that,” Hostetler said. “He could have run better, but with the circumstances that we had yesterday, Kurt ran very well.”
Beachy admitted that he could have run better over the flat, five-kilometer (3.1 mile) trail that cut through a golf course. He reported that he had a good start, clocking in a 5:10 for the first mile. But then he slowed his pace too much for the second mile, running it in 5:25.
“The first mile was right about where I wanted to be as far as my time goes. I think I slowed too much for the second mile,” Beachy said. By the third mile, Beachy was pretty well fixed in his position, without the benefit of running with another competitor to help set the pace.
“Kurt was out there running by himself a lot. That made it tough for him to gauge where he was,” Hostetler said.
Still, Beachy was pleased, realistically assessing his performance.
“If I had run a little better time, which I could have, I could have beaten a few of those guys ahead of me. That’s just how it goes—they did better than I did,” Beachy said.
Hostetler said that Beachy’s run was right on par with the way he had always run all season for IMS.
“What helps Kurt is being consistent,” Hostetler said. “He can be up or down a little bit, but he hasn’t had a bad race all year. I think that speaks a lot to his mental toughness.”
State Cross Country Meet, Saturday, October 30 at Fort Dodge
Class 1A Boys (Team): 1. West Sioux, 92; 2. Dike-New Hartford, 93; 3. Iowa City Regina, 101; 4. Eagle Grove, 136; 5. Bellevue Marquette, 146.
Class 1A Boys (Individual): 1. Nick Rubel, Bellevue Marquette, 16:13; 2. Justin Pieper, Fort Madison Aquinas, 16:15; 3. Will Steingreaber, Van Buren, 16:22; 4. Abdikani Abdulahi, Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn, 16:28; 5. Tad Stolley, Woodbine, 16:30; 6. Tony Bothell, Iowa City Regina, 16:33; 7. Jerod Bruget, West Sioux, 16:43; 8. Matt McCue, Iowa City Regina, 16:46; 9. Oscar Alonzo, CAL-Dows, 16:47; 10. Jon Ries, Turkey Valley, 16:47; 11. Danny Schmitz, Dike-New Hartford, 16:49; 12. Michael Willey, West Monona, 16:49; 13. Andy Schmitz, Dike-New Hartford, 16:50; 14. Kurt Beachy, Iowa Mennonite, 16:58; 15. Brent Lorkovic, Council Bluffs St. Albert, 17:00; 16. Andrew Wesendorf, Wapsie Valley, 17:01; 17. David Braet, Calamus-Wheatland, 17:01; 18. Aaron Hamilton, Eagle Grove, 17:02; 19. Chris Helgeson, Lake Mills, 17:02; 20. Joe Reyes, Interstate 35 Truro, 17:02; 21. Chett Ray, Orient-Macksburg, 17:04; 22. Joel Cardo, Valley CEW, 17:05; 23. Dan Huitink, West Sioux, 17:05; 24. Tedd Allen, East Marshall, LeGrand, 17:06; 25. Michael Canady, Iowa Christian, 17:07; 26. Jason Drucker, Starmont, 17:07; 27. Jason Flogel, Bellevue Marquette, 17:08; 28. Marty Olson, Gilbert, 17:09; 29. Ryan Koopmans, West Sioux, 17:10; 30. Derek Bockelman, West Sioux, 17:11.