Photo courtesy of Steph Libis
After waiting an extra day to run in the Region 2B cross country meet, the Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinal boys’ team captured the regional title on Thursday, October 11th in Irene. It was the first regional title for St Mary since 1986 and comes one week after the Cardinals claimed the Dakota Valley Conference title.
The Cardinals finished with a total of 17 points. Canistota placed second with 29 points, and Elkton-Lake Benton had 31 points. All three teams qualified for state by being the top three teams in the region.
Not only did the team take the DVC and region titles, the Cardinals can claim the individual DVC and Region 2B champion. Jacob Vogel also won the individual title at the regional meet with a time of 17:31.18.
St Mary had five runners finish in the top 20. Along with Vogel finishing first, Connor Libis was fourth with a time of 18:20.18. Seth Roemen placed 14th with a time of 19:10.09. Thomas Eining was 17th at a time of 19:18.64, and Ryan Eining finished with a time of 19:21.64.
The lone varsity girl’s runner for St Mary, Addy Gilbert, also had a top 20 finish to qualify for state. Gilbert placed 14th with a time of 22:13.23.
In the JV race, Sam Palmer took first place for the Cardinals. Own Vargas finished third, Lucas Flemmer placed fourth, and Gabe Nelson was ninth.
The 2018 South Dakota Class B Cross Country meet will be held on Saturday, October 20th at Yankton Trails Park in Sioux Falls.