Lachowitzer repeats, Allmer finishes 3rd at state

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John M. Steiner / The Sun Jamestown’s Alison Allmer (left) tries to break away from Fargo Shanley’s Sarah Jacobson during Saturday’s state Class A race at Hillcrest Golf Course.

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Minot’s Brecca Wahlund may have been the top ranked girls’ cross country runner heading into Saturday’s state Class A meet, but reigning champ Tarin Lachowitzer, of Fargo Davies, wasn’t about to hand over her crown without a fight.

Lachowitzer, who was ranked No. 2 in the final Class A coaches’ poll, took down Wahlund to capture her second straight state title.

“It’s really exciting,” she said of winning back-to-back individual state championships. “I was really nervous for this.”

Her nerves seemed to take a back seat while running as she cleared the field at Hillcrest Golf Course by over 18 seconds with a time of 14:43.3.

“I think I ran pretty well,” said Lachowitzer, who ran for Fargo South last year when she won her first individual state title. “I pushed myself a lot towards the end, which is what I wanted.”

Wahlund, the West Region champ, fell off in the end, falling back to sixth place before crossing the finish line.

“I had to run a pretty good race,” Lachowitzer said. “I’m really proud of (Wahlund). She really made me push myself.”

Fargo Shanley’s Sarah Jacobson took runner-up honors with a time of 15:01.8 and Jamestown’s Alison Allmer accomplished her goal by finishing third.

“I did it,” she said. “I’m really, really happy.”

Allmer, who was ranked third in the final Class A poll, finished the race in 15:09.1, while fending off Bismarck Century’s Jordan Jacob and Fargo Davies’ Katie Bye until the very end. Jacob finished fourth and Bye fifth.

“The way the race developed, Brecca went out hard and sometimes that can kind of break some of those kids and they say, ‘Oh, there she goes. I’m done,’” Jamestown coach Ken Gardner said. “But then Brecca came back to the pack, and once Tarin passed her, that gave some of those other girls some confidence.”

Lachowitzer and Bye headed a Davies team that finished first with a team score of 70, edging out the Bismarck Demons by two points.

Bismarck Century came in third with 88 and Fargo Shanley followed in fourth (151).

Tournament host Jamestown finished in 14th place after Kaiann Arellano placed 73rd, Elizabeth Etzel came in 102nd, Brittany O’Neill finished 105th and Marissa O’Neill followed in 131st.

The Blue Jays finished with a team score of 414.

“The girls put it on the line and ran the race they could run,” Gardner said. “As coaches, that’s all you can ask for.”

The Demons got the best of the state in the boys’ division by cruising to a first-place team finish with a combined score of 53.

Bismarck also crowned an individual champ in Jake Leingang, after he beat out second-place finisher Levi Sether, of Bismarck Century, by over 23 seconds.

“I didn’t really know what to expect because I had never run this course before,” said Leingang, who finished with a time of 16:03.3. “But I think it went pretty well.”

Leingang, who finished fourth last year at state, was ranked No. 1 in the final Class A boys’ poll and backed it up with a convincing win to polish off the season.

“It feels great but more importantly I’m glad our team did well,” he said. “My main goal was to come out here and help my team win state.”

The Demons got five runners to place in the top 18, including a fourth-place finish from Austin Todd. Team runner-up Williston had four runners place in the top 20 but it wasn’t enough in the end.

Francis Mendee, of Grand Forks Red River, finished third individually, while Nate Peterson, of West Fargo, rounded out the top five.

Jamestown finished 15th behind an 83rd-place finish from Joe Jensen. Jensen, who finished 59th at the West Region meet, finished with a time of 18:40.9. Teammate Colt Rasmessen followed in 89th place after crossing the finish line in 18:46.2 and Cory Goehner came in 104th. Phil Manley, after finishing 36th at the West Region meet, placed 109th on Saturday and Michael Sorenson finished 114th to round out the Blue Jay scoring.

“The numbers kind of shifted around again but with that crew that we’ve got, on any given day, it could be any of those guys,” Gardner said. “That was good to see.”

Tags: cross country, sports, jays