The 25th place finish meant the New Ulm Cathedral senior was named All-State.

“It went well, she got out nice and strong and she didn’t get boxed in,” SM/SE/NUC coach Lisa Hagen said. “She had a good, strong start, it was a little warmer than we had anticipated today, but she gave it everything she had today.”

Fischer thought she did well at the meet.

“I feel like I had been prepared in a physical sense, mentally it was kind of hard for me, especially being a senior because this is my last race,” Fischer said. “Overall, I was happy with where I placed, but I feel like it was a hard race for me.”

File photos by Jeremy Behnke Right: Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s/Sleepy Eye/New Ulm Cathedral senior Clare Fischer competes at the Tomahawk Conference Cross-Country meet on October 19. Fischer took 25th place at the state cross-country meet on Saturday. Above, smaller photo: Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop eighth-grader Madyson Steele competes at the Tomahawk Conference Cross-Country meet on October 19. She finished 32nd at the state meet on Saturday.

She said it was a challenging course for her.

“It’s a lot of trails and there was a lot of gravel, there was a couple of gravel hills and it was hard to get traction on those and it just dragged my time down, more than I would’ve liked it to,” she said.

Fischer finished the meet with a time of 20:03.48, an average of 6:27 per mile.

“I was able to get a good position, at the first mile I was 12th, but sacrificing that good start, I ended up falling back later in the race,” she said.

Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop eighth-grader Madyson Steele was 32nd overall with a time of 20:16.37.

Amanda Overgaauw won the overall honors when she finished in 18:09.13. Luverne’s Tenley Nelson was second in 18:47 and her teammate Jenna DeBates was third overall in 19:06.82. Staples-Motley’s Kyanna Burton was fourth overall in 19:08.10 and Nevis’ Jade Rypkema finished fifth overall with a time of 19:16.04.

Staples-Motley won the team competition with a score of 103 and Perham was second with a score of 109. Luverne finished third (117), followed by Hawley (161) and St. Cloud Cathedral (161).

On the boys’ side, Madelia-Truman/Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Martin Luther’s Josiah DeMaris finished 39th overall with a time of 17:23.28.

Nova Classical Academy (NCA) won the boys’ team meet with a score of 122, followed by Perham (128), Northwest Nighthawks (160), Greenway/Nashwauk-Keewatin (163) and Staples-Motley (191).

Perham’s Jakob McCleary won the race with a time of 16:09.64. Henry Karelitz of NCA was second overall in 16:25.02 and Branden Kampsen of Sauk Centre finished third overall in 16:25.93.

Cromwell’s Noah Foster was fourth overall (16:26.03) and West Central Area’s Kade Runge was fifth in 16:33.67.