Third place run qualifies Berg for state cross country

PANORA — Nodaway Valley junior Doug Berg ran to a third place finish at a Class 1A State Qualifying Cross Country Meet Thursday at Panorama West Golf Course west of Panora.

Berg ran the course — a true cross country course with many hills, wooded areas and rough terrain — in 17:19, behind Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center senior Trevin Suhr’s winning run of 16:44 and second-place Ethan Loutzenheiser of Madrid (17:13).

“I didn’t get the best start. Through the first 800 meters I was probably in 10th or so,” Berg said. “There’s a downhill back in the woods, so I picked it up after that and worked my way up.”

The temperature was approximately 50 degrees at race time, much cooler than most meets have been this season, but that didn’t bother Berg or his teammates. He’s excited to be making a return trip to state.

“I think I’m ranked seventh right now,” Berg said. “I’d like to do better than that, so top-5 is where I’d prefer to be.”

Berg qualified for state when he was a freshman as part of an entire team and was the team’s fifth scoring runner that day, running a 17:52. Boys cross country coach Darrell Burmeister said that if Berg wouldn’t have run that time, it would’ve severely impacted the team’s placing. Last year, Berg was 18th at state.

The Wolverines were fourth in the team standings in Panora, scoring 130 points. Sophomore runner Malachi Broers was 17th (18:49), Jevin Christensen was 29th (20:00), Ben Piearson was 42nd (20:41), Jaxon Christensen was 43rd (20:42), Tyler Cooper 46th (20:50) and Will Sturdy 52nd (21:17).

Madrid didn’t qualify as a team either, so there will be a new Class 1A state team champion this year. The Tigers and Nodaway Valley account for the last six state titles.

Nodaway Valley ran 1 minute, 51 seconds faster on the same course they ran on Sept. 16.

“That’s a lot of improvement. The key is that the guys really stayed with it,” Burmeister commented. “We knew we were kind of an average team in the beginning of the year. I told them to keep working hard and have confidence in what we’re doing, and they did. They came to practice every day and whatever workout we did they did their best. I’m a strong believer that perseverance and consistency pay off in the long run and these guys can end the season feeling pretty good about it.”

On the girls’ side, Nodaway Valley freshman Jazz Christensen came just short of qualifying for state, finishing 11th (21:54).

Next for the Wolverines was Lily Day (31st, 23:27), Erin Ford (38th, 24:17), Annika Nelson (41st, 24:24), Grace Britten (66th, 26:54) and Hope Kading (70th, 27:40).

Girls coach Chase Green commented that there’s a workout the girls team does called the “cone run.” They do it at the fairgrounds and have a course to run in five minutes. As the season has gone on, they’ve gotten a lot better with that run, covering farther distances in that five minutes. That was a good indicator for the coach that they’ve put in the hard work and improved greatly throughout the season.

“It was one of those things where you’re realizing how much they’ve improved,” Green said. “The top four runners, they’ve had a lot of fire the last four or five meets, jockeying for positions. It’s neat to see, and everyone’s been working really, really hard.”