The Stanley County Buffaloes were more than proud to announce that four of their talented cross country runners have earned state qualifier status. On the girls side, Kamora Rutherford and Jesse Fosheim both qualified, Rutherford taking the 11th spot with a time of 21:38.25 and Fosheim earning the 18th spot with a time of 22:58.59 . On the boys side, Ryland Magee and Bridger Gruber both qualified to represent Stanley County as well. Magee qualifying in the 12th position with a time of 18:51.66 and Gruber placing 18th with a time of 19:05.28.
As the Buffaloes athletic department continues to grow year by year, Rutherford, Fosheim, Magee and Gruber all play a crucial role in furthering the Cross Country program. To have not one, but four runners qualify (and two from both men’s and women’s divisions) proves the program is on a crescendo, and that the hard work is paying off.
Head Coach Shay Van Den Hemel had this to say about all four runners, “These four are the kind of athletes that help restart and build a program. After returning zero qualifiers from the year before they came in with the unknown and something to prove. There willingness to be coached and learn made it very easy to help set them up for success towards the end of the year. Kamora was a huge help with our young middle school girl runners, while only being a sophomore she stepped up and took a leadership role almost immediately and showed what it takes to be successful. She does a great job leading by example through her consistent runner and the encouragement she provides the younger athletes when the season gets tough. Jesse in her first year of cross country surprised me greatly, she took on each day with a smile and was always looking for ways to improve. She never shied away when I told her I was moving her up to JV and she brought the same mentality when she moved up to the varsity level. Ryland made a very big decision half way through the year to do both football and cross country. With starting late it was not going to be easy to get into running shape but he showed an outside work ethic by showing up every morning to get his run in before school so he could still attend football practice in the evenings. He also worked hard to learn how to run a cross country race with success and after just three races he cut over a minute off his time and qualified for the state meet. Bridger while only being a 7th grader is one of the most coachable kids I have seen in my short coaching career, with each practice or race we would talk about what race strategy or workout would help set him up for success and without hesitation would go do just that. He had a great way of keeping his emotions level not letting himself get too high or too low just looking to go out run better at every meet and he did just that by running a PR in his last three races. Much like Jesse he started the year running middle school. He too never showed any signs of being afraid about running in the JV or varsity levels. These four trusted their abilities and showed that enduring a little bit of pain is worth it when the race is all over. They will be able to learn off this experience and continue to be successful in the years to come.”
The State Cross Country meet will be held in Huron next Saturday, October 25th.
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