Dogies win at Mallo

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Dogie and Lady Dogie Cross Country teams started off their season with what is arguably their toughest course of the year at Mallo last Friday. Seven teams gathered to take on the challenge, and the Dogie men finished just ahead of Belle Fourche to take the win on the day.
“When I go out to Mallo, I don’t think it’s as bad as Custer or Hot Springs, but every coach I talk to - and the kids - say it is the hardest course by far,” head coach Kathy Beehler admitted. “It’s halfway all up, and then halfway all down, and you are kind of running all by yourself so it’s more challenging to keep your pace where it should be because you lose touch with your teammates.”
Tristan Troftgruben came in second behind a Belle Fourche runner who won the race last year. 
He finished in 18:42, and was followed by Carson Bock in fifth place with a time of 19:56. Avery Chick came in ninth in 20:28, Zach Purviance was 34 seconds behind Chick in 16th and Collin Dudzinski closed it out for the Dogies finishing in 17th and right on the heels of Purviance with a time of 21:19.
“Our top five varsity ran well, but we are a little farther apart than we need to be,” Beehler admitted. “We’re two and a half minutes apart from our number one to our number five, so we are going to have to crunch those numbers.” 
Beehler went on to predict that we are likely to see the top three finishers for the men alternate from race to race depending on the training leading up to the race. Because several Dogies are very competitive with their potential times, who finishes ahead of whom may come down to how rested each runner is on the day of the contest.
The Dogies’ junior varsity team also won their event by a significant margin. Bridger Alishouse won the 4,000 meter race with a time of 15:09, Mathew Drake was second, Gabe Rose fourth, Gunnar Wainscott seventh, Conrad Prell ninth, Dylan Drost 13th and Travis Scribner was 19th.
“Our junior varsity boys really stepped it up,” Beehler nodded. “They were packed together really well, so that was great to see so early in the season.”
No teams had enough girls running to make a team for either the varsity or junior varsity contests. 
The Lady Dogies had only Hailey McGuire representing in the varsity race where she finished fifth with a time of 24:25. In the junior varsity, 4,000 meter division, Lara Lopez was the first across the finish line for Newcastle in third place. Avery Alishouse was seventh and Grace Rose came in 11th.
“The kids who were able to run did a good job. Everyone put it out there, and this meet is a little bit harder than others,” Beehler stated. “Next week at Spearfish should be better, because we should be able to keep an eye on each other allowing us to stay closer to our teammates. It’s a flatter course so that should make it easier on us, and there are a few more teams there which will push us a little more.”
The Dogies and Lady Dogies will travel to Spearfish on Friday for a meet this week. The schedule says that the meet is scheduled for Thursday, however, the date was changed to Friday.