Kock, Falkena pace Lady Vikes to sixth at 1A State Meet
FORT DODGE (Oct. 31) -- For six AHSTW seniors, it was one last chance to represent the program on Iowa’s biggest high school stage.
As usual, the Lady Vikes did not disappoint.
Finishing five spots higher than its final state ranking, the AHSTW girls placed sixth out of 16 teams in Saturday’s Class 1A session of the 2020 State Cross Country Championships at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course.
The 1A girls team race was tightly contested as the top eight squads posted scores within 59 points of each other. Hudson won the title with a 128, followed by South Winneshiek (130), Iowa City Regina (161), Pekin (161), ACGC (163), AHSTW (180), Van Meter (184) and Manson Northwest Webster (187).
AHSTW head coach Jenny Hamilton said that she was “beyond proud” of the team for its accomplishments. “We feel really good about the day,” she said. “Any time you come to the state level of competion it’s hard to walk away feeling good about yourself, but we feel like we left it all out there. Solid performances, solid efforts and there’s nothing that we’re hanging our head about today. I’m very proud of the girls.”
Seniors Julia Kock and Chloe Falkena, who were both competing in their fourth state meet, paced the Lady Vikes by placing 22nd and 26th, respectively, out of 152 total runners.
Kock ran her fastest time of the year and her fastest state meet time ever (20:47), improving on last year’s performance by 14 seconds and, more importantly, 29 places. Falkena, who came in 20th last year, finished just six seconds behind Kock in 26th.
Senior Holly Hoepner, competing in her second state meet, finished 64th in 22 minutes flat for AHSTW. Senior Jade Draman, a veteran of three state meets, placed 93rd with a season-best time of 22:39. Senior Kailey Jones, who just joined the cross country program this year, was two seconds behind Draman in 94th to round out the team score.
Also competing for the Lady Vikes were junior Jordan Blotzer (148th) and senior Claire Denning (151st). Both were competing at state for a second time.