They did it!
The Rugby Girls Cross Country Team made some school history at the State CC Meet and they did it with flair.
The team as a whole outran the other schools with a 55 point victory to win the title ‘State Champions”. The girls will go down in RHS history as the first to bring home that honor.
This 2010 team had five All-State runners for the first time in school history. Chandra Yankton’s second place finish was icing on the cake.
Sydney Kraft won her 4th All-State finish to be the first Girls CC athlete to accomplish that feat in RHS history. She has a goal to add one more in her senior year in 2011.
The weather at Jamestown for the meet was cool, overcast and a little breezy.
“The weather was great for distance running,” said Coach Bill Jansen.
The biggest struggle for this girls team was at the beginning of the season when the team was trying to find athletes to replace five of the top seven runners who were lost through graduation and other circumstances from the 2009 season, according to Jansen.
“Our biggest positive was finding the replacements,” said Jansen.
And the rest is history.
“The biggest surprise for individual performances were Crystal Hovland and Shanaya Fred finishing in the top 20 after finishing in about the same places at the region meet,” said Jansen.
Some of the highlights of this year’s state meet included both the girls team and the boys team. It was the first time in school history that both teams have won a region title in the same year.
And the first time since 2006 that both teams have placed in the top 5 in the same year at state.
With the boys bringing in a second place finish and the girls taking first, it is the highest finish for the combined teams in school history.