Hillcrest’s Leah Bontrager finishes career-best 52nd

State 1A Cross Country Championships

By Paul D. Bowker
Posted 11/9/20

The smiling runner scored a personal-best finish in the Class 1A girls state meet this past Saturday.

Leah Bontrager, a junior at Hillcrest Academy, placed 52nd in the state championship meet …

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Hillcrest’s Leah Bontrager finishes career-best 52nd

State 1A Cross Country Championships

Posted

The smiling runner scored a personal-best finish in the Class 1A girls state meet this past Saturday.

Leah Bontrager, a junior at Hillcrest Academy, placed 52nd in the state championship meet held at Kennedy Park in Fort Dodge.

And she started from the back of the field.

Squeezed into the first box of starters with several other individual runners, Bontrager got a good look at the field of 155 runners and nearly moved into the top 50, passing scores of runners throughout the race. Just the way she likes it.

“I always like to look around and notice how I’m starting,” she said. “The back of the pack is kind of fun to notice myself moving up.”

And she did it with a smile on her face, something that is a bit of trademark for the four-sport athlete.

“In the beginning for awhile, I felt really good,” Bontrager said. “I was just like noticing all the people around me and smiling.”

Bontrager finished 15 spots ahead of her finish at the state meet last year. Her time of 21:43 was 21 seconds slower than last year, but that was due to the windy conditions that made it a slower race for all of the competitors. This year’s winner, Haley Meyer of Kee High School in Lansing, finished 26 seconds slower (19:11) than last year’s winner, Peyton Pogge of Tri-Center.  Pogge was nearly a minute slower this year and finished fifth.

Winds gusted to about 30 miles an hour.

“She was aware of that,” said Hillcrest coach Marty Gingerich. “We had some ways to deal with that, which she handled well.”

Bontrager finished faster than two of the runners on the winning Hudson team.

The course featured multiple turns and hills on the Lakeside Municipal Golf Course with approximately 2,000 spectators and coaches lining the course and running from one viewing spot to another.

While Bontrager focused on her time and the wind, Gingerich and others had an eye on the placings.

“We were trying to keep her informed throughout the race,” Gingerich said.

The state championship capped off a strong year for Bontrager in which she didn’t miss a race despite recovering from a tendonitis injury in her foot. She finished third in the state qualifier to make it into the state meet.

“I like each meet and how each one is different and has different challenges,” Bontrager said of her season. “I didn’t know exactly how it was going to go. I started out with an injury, then it went away, and would come and go. I surprised myself at the state qualifier and I’m here.”

Bontrager was the only runner, girl or boy, among local Class 1A schools to qualify for the state meet. She also made All-Conference with her eighth-place finish in the Southeast Iowa Super Conference championship. You’d never know she was battling an injury.

“She was in really good shape the first month of track. Then everything shut down (due to COVID-19),” Gingerich said. “She’s not where she was the first of March. But she’s here again, and she handled everything really well. Her composure is amazing.”

She celebrated her finish near the recovery area with family and friends. And with a smile. No surprise there.