REGIONAL- Last week’s Class A state championship wasn’t the end of the road for the South Ridge Panthers girls cross country team this season. The 7A Sectional champions made the trek to Sioux Falls, S.D. last Saturday for the Nike Heartland Regional Championships, testing themselves against the best teams in a seven-state region.
The girls competition featured five races with a total of 1561 runners comprising 136 teams, with many larger schools entering multiple teams in the event. As a team the Panthers placed 53rd, led by a trio of North Woods runners.
“This was a huge, amazing event,” said Panthers Head Coach Jeremy Polson. “A great experience, for sure.”
Senior Evelyn Brodeen returned to the top of the South Ridge pack this meet, placing 77th out of 338 runners in her race with a time of 20:31.2. She was pushed by freshman Zoey Burckhardt, who was the Panthers’ top runner for the bulk of the season after Brodeen suffered a leg injury that kept her out of competition for six weeks. Burckhardt was just two-and-a-half seconds behind Brodeen in 78th place with a time of 20:33.7. A third North Woods runner, Addison Burckhardt, finished 104th with a time of 21:09.5.