Newcastle’s runners continue to cut their times

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
A jam-packed Homecoming schedule last week was a factor in head cross country coach Kathy Beehler’s decision to attend only the contest in Hot Springs on Tuesday, and forgo the Hart Ranch meet in Rapid City on Friday.
“Rapid is a fast course, so a good opportunity for kids to get PRs, but with guys in the homecoming court and kids in the band, there was just too much conflict for us to go,” Beehler explained. “Hot Springs is also a good meet for us, and it’s another hilly one so with Belle, Custer and Hot Springs all presenting some challenging hills, you just hope that they improve after each.”
The coach got her wish as most of the runners were faster and personal best times were recorded for senior Max Makousky and freshmen Aspen Bloom, Thatcher Troftgruben, Sam Scribner, Tayson Wheeler and Ben Carter. 
Both the ladies and the men’s varsity teams finished second, with the ladies losing by only one point. 
“We just needed one person to beat one person and we would have gotten first,” Beehler sighed. “We will talk about the fact that every point counts this week, and that you just have to push yourself to get past the next runner.”
Given that it was the first time the Lady Dogies have competed as a varsity team, however, Beehler was pleased to see how her young squad performed. Bloom once again led the way, finishing fourth, Janaya Ralls was eighth and Tara Carter was just a second behind Ralls in ninth. 
Rachel Baird was next in 14th while Taylor Conklin and Julie Morris were tight together with their 16th- and 17th-place finishes. 
“There was only a 2:00 spread between our first and third runners, but we need to tighten things up from there,” Beehler determined. “We will be working on that in the next couple of weeks but we are on our way to get there.”
For the men, Avery Chick led the way again finishing second, while Troftgruben and Sam Scribner churned up grass to come in close behind in fourth and seventh. 
“Though Avery wasn’t on the PR he ran in Spearfish, the Hot Springs course is a great deal harder so in perspective, he had a great time,” Beehler said. “Thatcher had a personal best race and was only 36 seconds behind Avery, which was huge. It was also Sam’s first time in the 19s, and he was close to the 18s so that is also great.”
Wyatt Cole also broke into the 19s with his 11th-place finish, and Makousky and Mathew Drake
were close behind in 12th and 13th respectively.
In the JV division, the men won pretty handily with Wheeler, Logan Olson and Carter finishing third, fourth and fifth respectively. Caleb Hoover was close behind in seventh place while Travis Scribner finished 14th and Richard Smith 17th. 
According to Beehler, this week was their peak week in mileage so the team will be starting to taper down. The plan is to begin to drop mileage while maintaining the intensity of their training runs as they begin to prepare for conference and state. 
This week, the squad heads to Sturgis on Thursday for their only meet of the week.