HCHS Heslink medals for boys; Multiple girls medal at Hawk-10 Meet
Sophomore Cyclone Erik Heslink was the only boy who medaled for HCHS finishing 10th overall with a time of 17:34.78 at the Hawkeye Ten Meet in Carroll, while multiple girls medaled for the Cyclones including Aspen Bieker in 20th with 21:30.02, Allie Anderson in 18th 21:15.96, Brylee Schechinger in 13th with 20:45.29, Ashlyn Rau in 5th with 19:52.49, and Lindsey Sonderman in 2nd with 18:17.91.
“I’m just really happy,” said Cyclone Head Coach Zach Klaassen. “Erik has been battling a lot of things and for him to finish 10th, that’s really awesome for him. He PR’d today. His times are getting a lot better. He’s looking a lot stronger and feeling a lot more confident. On the girls side, we medaled five girls in the top 20, which is pretty awesome.”
Sonderman finished behind a familiar face, Junior Lili Denton of St. Albert, who won the race 11 seconds ahead of Sonderman with a time of 18:06.51.
“I felt really good,” Sonderman said. “I try to get behind other runners in the wind and have them block it for a little bit. I thought I ran a really smart race in that way.”
As a team, the boys finished ninth with 189 points, while the girls took a second place finish with 58 points, just one behind Glenwood who won with 57.
For some seniors, they will not be running at the state qualifying meet. Klaassen spoke on behalf on how much he’ll miss them, along with their contributions to the program.
“It’s great to have those seniors,” he said. “They give a lot to the program. I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about Logan Breyfogle. He has a sports hernia and he’s been battling. He hasn’t been able to practice because of the pain, but he comes and competes every race. Much respect for that young man. It’s stories like that that make this sport awesome. On the girls side, one of the fun ones and crazy ones is Molly [Swensen]. It’s awesome to have those relationships and see where they go from here.”
The Cyclones will be in familiar territory for the state qualifying meet set to take place Wednesday at the Harlan Golf & Country Club, where they will compete against 11 other schools.
“I think it’s definitely an advantage to have the state qualifying meet at your home course, especially just because of all the familiar faces there cheering you on,” Sonderman said. “Also, you know the little places where it’s important to speed up on, so I think it will be a really good race there.”
With Sonderman set to graduate at the end of the school year, she talked about what she’ll miss most about running cross country for the Cyclones.
“I’ll miss the team,” she said. “All of the workouts that we push each other on, and having fun together.”
