October 24, 2023
The Earlham cross country teams continued an era of dominance when both the girls’ and boys’ teams won their state qualifying races on October 18 in Mount Ayr, punching their tickets to the state meet in Fort Dodge this Friday. The Cardinal girls have now been to four straight state meets as a team, and the boys have been to seven of the last eight.
The draw of teams at Mount Ayr was favorable for both teams, but probably more so for the boys. Given the field, the Cards seemed assured of at least a 2nd-place finish, which would get them to Fort Dodge. But the Cardinals weren’t interested in runner-up—they came to win. With St. Albert runners finishing 1-2 overall, all five scoring runners for the Cards finished in the top 10, giving Earlham a 29-35 edge over the Falcons.
There was no surprise when the Falcons’ Owen Wise (ranked #12) and Parker Heisterkamp (#14) dominated the race. The plan for the Cardinals was to beat all the other Falcons.
“We knew St. Albert had the top two kids. We knew they’d go 1 and 2,” said Blake Tiemeyer. “The game plan was to just pass everyone else in yellow. I think we did a good job. We had 4 (finishers) in a row. The coaches just told us to pass the St. Albert kids and that’s what we did.”
While St. Albert finished 1st and 2nd, Carson Maly and Dawson Braet finished 3rd and 4th. Earlham’s next three runners made up the scoring difference. Donovan Braet was 5th, compared to the #3 Falcon runner, who was 7 seconds behind in 6th. Tiemeyer finished 7th and David Nichols was 10th, compared to St. Albert’s #4 and #5 runners, who were 12th and 14th, respectively. As they have been doing all season, the top five Cardinals finished in a tight grouping, just 38 seconds apart.
‘Passing everyone in yellow’ isn’t as easy as it sounds. Maly likes to take advantage of hills to get it done.
“I speed up on the uphill,” he said, “I try and catch a guy and race him, and then whenever they try to speed up, that’s going to kill them. Then I pass them on the downhill.”
Maly and Tiemeyer made it to the state meet as individuals last year, but the team came up just short. To get over the top this season, two freshmen—Dawson Braet and David Nicholls—have been major contributors.
“It feels pretty good to have new faces on the team,” said Maly. “A lot of them have stepped up and taken a big role.”
It’s not always easy to be a freshman on a varsity team, but the welcoming environment that the Cardinals create helps them to assimilate.
“It’s challenging, but it’s really fun,” said Nicholls. “I’ve really enjoyed this season—being able to make it to state as a team.”
Being a freshman is tough, but having the last name ‘Braet’ isn’t easy, either. Donovan and Dawson are the sons of the coach, after all, and have an older brother (Dom) who accomplished a lot as an athlete.
“It’s a little bit of pressure, but it keeps you running faster and it makes you better,” said Donovan. “It’s hard, but it’s fun.”
As good leaders and veterans of the state meet, Maly and Tiemeyer will be able to help all the first timers adjust to the unique environment at Fort Dodge.
“There’s a lot of pressure. A lot of people,” said Maly. “You just have to stay calm. You just have to keep the same routine, use the same mindset and the same race strategy. Just don’t let everything make you nervous.”
Tiemeyer added, “It’s scary. It’s nerve wracking. You just have to go out and block everything out. Do your best and run your race.”
The Cardinal girls were favored to win at Mount Ayr, but there were two teams—AHSTW and Grandview Christian—that could threaten them. But senior Olivia Spurling took matters into her own hands. The coaches told her that there would probably be a runner ahead of her and fellow Cardinal Mackenzie Harger, so Spurling was expecting to have someone out front pacing her. That didn’t happen. Spurling led the entire race and won by a wide margin.
“I kind of went out and thought, ‘I’m going to do this for myself and see how fast I can run this.’ One of my goals was to run under 20 (minutes), which I did.”
Harger finished 2nd, 51 seconds behind Spurling and 20 seconds ahead of the 3rd-place finisher.
“Once we settled in and Liv was in front of me,” said Harger, “I just tried to keep my eye on her and focus on either catching her or just staying where I’m at.”
But the race wasn’t without drama. Hannah Frank was running with a knee injury that kept her out of the last two meets, and as the race developed, it was clearly bothering her. She was running well early, but gradually fell back though the pack and could not finish the race.
“It’s aways been off and on for me with knee injuries,” said Frank, “but with this one, rest has been the only thing—with a few exercises—that has helped. But when you’re in a time crunch to try to stay in shape but also give your knee rest, it’s kind of a hard thing to balance.”
With Frank out, that meant other Cardinals had to step up. Enter CeCe Stanley, Taylor Rodgers, and Lily Conry, who all did just that.
“I think we tried to stay calm,” said Taylor Rodgers, knowing that Frank was not 100% coming into the race. “Obviously we wanted to race well, but not put too much pressure on ourselves. So, just not thinking about it and racing our race.”
“I was just pacing behind Hannah and saw her slowly stopping,” added Stanley. “I just wanted to keep going, push through, and try my hardest to help us.”
As a volleyball starter, Conry was still feeling the effects—emotionally and physically—of the season-ending loss the night before the qualifying meet. She didn’t want her two sports seasons to end on back-to-back nights.
“I saw three girls from the other top two teams in front of me, and then I saw Hannah back there, too,” she said. “I thought, ‘Oh shoot! We lost last night—am I going to be the reason we lose right now? It ended up being fine. Obviously, I didn’t want the same thing to happen as last night.”
This week when the Cardinal girls line up in Fort Dodge at state, they will not be one of the favorites to place like they were last year—but don’t count them out, either. They’re down a bit, but not out.
“Earlier this year we were all facing some injuries, and some still have injuries,” said Spurling. “I’m hoping that everything clears up and we are all healthy by next week. I do want to go have that experience again because it was awesome. With these new faces, I want them to have the same experience we had last year.”
Earlham Echo 
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