Mother Nature can’t stop Newcastle’s runners

Sonja Karp
NLJ Correspondent
 
The Dogies took on one environmental challenge after another at their cross country meet Thursday in Belle Fourche, S.D. According to head coach Kathy Beehler, her team prevailed despite having to tackle hills, heat and smoke. 
“Given the circumstances, I was actually surprised at how well we did,” said Beehler. “We put up some really good times for that course and given the conditions.”
Aspen Bloom continues to prove that, though she is just a freshman, she has what it takes to compete with the big girls. Bloom didn’t let hills, nor heat, nor smoke hold her back as she finished eighth out of a field of 31 runners with a time of 23:58.09.
“Man, she ran well!” Beehler exclaimed. “I am just really impressed with how she is stepping up and taking on the challenge of competing at the varsity level.”
Janaya Ralls and Tara Carter were once again close together as they finished 22nd and 23rd with times of 27:51.89 and 28:02.11 respectively.
At this point, Beehler has yet to enter all her girls in the varsity division due to their age and experience. On Thursday, she ran three in varsity and the rest in JV. Rachel Baird, though she competed in the JV division, finished 10th with a time of 27:28.99, which would have put her just ahead of Ralls in the varsity race. 
“Rachel just really wanted to run in the JV race one more time, so I was fine with that,” Beehler explained. “And it was nice because that gave her the opportunity to medal so that was awesome.”
“It’s still early, so she will get up to that varsity level before too long,” Beehler continued. “We may go one more week before we move everyone up to varsity, but it will for sure happen by the Hot Springs meet on the 21st.”
In the men’s race, Avery Chick once again led his team across the finish line with a fourth-place finish. Thatcher Troftgruben was next in 11th place, and Sam Scribner also impressed Beehler with his effort and 18th-place finish.
“Sam ran in the top 15 pretty much all the way, but it seemed as if the heat was really getting to him,” she began. “It was probably in just the last 400 meters that things went south for him.”
Max Makousky was back on the course this week after missing the meet in Spearfish, S.D. He took the break in stride, however and was just two places behind Scribner, while Travis Scriber closed out the Dogie team finishing 29th. 
“In JV, Nick [Lopez] and Ben [Carter] did great and they are just pumping right along,” Beehler added. “I feel like our freshmen are really coming through for us. They are jumping in and trying to help the varsity.”
On the way back to Newcastle, the team made their traditional stop at Devil’s Bathtub for a post-meet ice bath, which was refreshing after the heat of the race. While there, Beehler allowed herself to get talked into going down the rock slide for a nice cold dip in the water.
“I have never gotten in the water, but I finally did and it really wasn’t that bad,” she said. “The water is definitely cold, but it was fun.”
On Thursday, the team will head to Custer, S.D., for their meet. Covid stopped the team from competing in South Dakota last season, so the squad is looking forward to getting back on the Custer course. Varsity starts things off at 2 with the girls race followed by the boys. JV is up next, while middle school will close out the meet.