Bauder reflects on Central cross country season
By Willis Patenaude, Times-Reigster
The Central cross country team finished its 2021 season on Oct. 30, at the state meet in Fort Dodge, as junior Hannah Asche and sophomore Jaydin Dettman ran with the top 152 runners in the state in class 1A.
Asche and Dettman were the 36th and 37th female runners from Central, dating back to 1994, to qualify and compete at the state meet. With this year’s participation, Central has competed at state in 26 of the past 30 years.
On the girls side this season, the Warriors were blessed, said coach Mark Bauder. The Warriors put together a strong 18-member team, which was also one of the largest teams in the area.
“Not only did we have a lot of girls, but more importantly, we had a lot of hard working and dedicated girls who set out to get better every day in order to compete hard in meets and achieve their individual 5K goals and our team goals,” Bauder said.
With the season over, the Warriors are set to lose three seniors, including Haley Mueller, Mylee Wingert and Kaitlyn Wiley. Mueller and Wingert were four-year seniors who Bauder said were “great leaders and role models through their dedication to our team and to their enjoyment of running.”
Wiley joined the team for the first time this season, but Bauder said she “worked her way into the varsity line up early on in the season, hopefully showing other students at Central that it’s never too late to try something new before you graduate.”
While the seniors and their leadership will be difficult to replace, Bauder believes the Warriors will still have a very strong group of underclassmen runners returning. The group includes Asche, Dettman, Delaney Scherf, Eva Embretson, Carly Kluesner, Rebecca Suhr, Taylor Moser, Gracie Cummer, Ashlyn Scherf, Madylen Gregerson and Staci Herman. Then there are returning freshmen varsity runners such as Reese Berns and Coral Rork, along with Alexis Thiese and Keeley Curran.
“So, among this group, we return seven of our top nine runners and, with this year of experience, everyone should be prepared to improve to new heights next season,” Bauder said.
On the boys side, Bauder said the team was “fortunate to have two seniors keep battling and stick it out another year after not having enough runners last year for a team score.”
This year, though, the boys team was lucky to have three more runners participate, which helped form a complete team.
The two seniors, Brayden Finley and Corey Weber, started their cross country careers as freshmen, running in the 22 minute range. By their senior years, the two were able to cut their times down to the 19-minute range. But even more important than their times, according to Bauder, was their leadership, dedication to running and commitment to the Central cross country program.
Also on the team this year were juniors Storm Huinker and Tate Berns and freshman Gavin Holst, who had the fastest time for a freshman at Central since 2012. Though the team is slowly growing, Bauder is looking to find ways to encourage at least seven to eight more runners to compete for the boys team next season.
As the Warriors look forward to next season, Bauder made a point to thank the athletes for their hard work and commitment to the program, as well as team manager Haley Sharpe for her help with timing and assigning numbers during meets, and the “great group of parents” for all the excellent team dinners and food items during meets.
