Cross Country runners close out regular season

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
The Dogie Cross Country team wrapped up their regular season Friday in Gillette at their invitational meet. Up against several 4A teams, and running on a challenging course, both the ladies and the men had their work cut out for them.
Head coach Kathy Beehler was determined for her runners to put up personal records on the course this season, as that achievement has evaded them in the past, and to some degree, her athletes rose to the challenge.
“Thatcher [Troftgruben], Sam [Scribner], Max [Makousky] and Nick [Lopez] PR’d in the varsity race, and Caleb [Hoover] did so in the JV race, so that was great,” Beehler said, smiling. 
As a team, the men finished in sixth place against a field where they were one of only two 3A teams, as the remainder were all in the 4A class division.
“Avery [Chick] ran a good race and he ran with the Buffalo kid who has been beating him,” Beehler began. “He was ahead of him the entire race, and then in the last half-mile he lost traction and ground against him.”
Chick ended up dropping time, but not quite reaching the PR he set at Spearfish, S.D., earlier in the season. He came across the finish line in 14th place with a time of 18:05.94. Troftgruben was the second Dogie runner in 23rd place with a personal best time of 18:33.21. Scribner was close behind in 26th, and was just 9 seconds slower than Troftgruben for his PR of 18:42.45.
After running a PR last week, Mathew Drake was 35th in 19:55.83, Makousky finished 36th with his PR of 20:24.06 and Lopez rounded things out with his 39th-place finish in 20:37.67, also a PR.
There were no team results for the JV, however the squad scored 269 points overall. Ben Carter finished 36th and Tayson Wheeler was hot on his heels in 37th. It was nearly a photo finish as the gap between these two runners was a mere .20 of a second.
Logan Olson crossed the finish line in 58th, Caleb Hoover did so in 67th with his personal best time of 23:49.47, and Travis Scribner came in 71st.
“Caleb had a great race,” Beehler said. “His knees have been bothering him lately, but he felt good on Friday and we were all really excited about how he ran.”
Weather was not a factor in Friday’s race, however the way the course set-up definitely had an impact on the ladies’ race. 
During the race, there was no cart leading the runners through the course as there usually is. According to Beehler, this was due the fact that the cart was too wide to fit down a very narrow portion of the course that winds through some trees.
“I guess they thought the course was marked well enough, and they used the cart during the boys’ race so I’m not sure why they opted not to for the girls,” Beehler pondered. “The lead runner ended up turning left instead of right near the end of the course, which cut off about 900 meters from the race.”
With the shortened course, all of the Lady Dogies were very excited about their times, at least until they learned what had transpired.
Aspen Bloom finished in 18th place, Janaya Ralls in 31st, Tara Carter in 34th with Rachel Baird right behind in 35th place. Taylor Conklin and Julie Morris also finished back-to-back in 37th and 38th place.
Due to the mishap, there were only unofficial team results which placed Newcastle in sixth with 155 points.
With the regular season having come to a close, the squad is looking toward the 3A East Conference meet Thursday in Douglas. The JV will start things off at
2, then the girls varsity race will commence at 3 with the boys varsity to wrap things up at 3:45.