Midgets stumble at West Region cross country meet

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WILLISTON — The Dickinson cross country team wasn’t exactly trilled with its performance at the West Region meet.

Dickinson’s boys and girls both finished fifth. Dickinson head coach Shawn Leiss said the boys team wasn’t mentally prepared for race.

“On the boys’ side, I was a little more than disappointed,” he said. “I’d chalk it up to we weren’t prepared to compete and other schools were.”

Leiss said if the boys would have ran the same times as they did a week ago in Williston, they could have ended up second.

“Nothing changed physically,” he said. “We just weren’t ready mentally. In my mind that tells me, we are the same team and we have to up and ready to go.”

Bismarck High won the boys meet behind the effort of champion Jake Leingang, who had a time of 15 minutes, 50 seconds. The Demons took the top five spots in the meet.

Jackson Binstock led the Midgets in 11th place (17:23). Vlad Kutka followed in 16th place and newcomer Michael Porter placed 35th.

“Michael is an intelligent young man,” Leiss said. “He’s going to do things intuitively. We just need to get him more time to practice, but we are running out of time.”

On the girls’ side, Meleah Leiss led the way with a 16th-place finish (16:32). Emily Tyrell ran a time of 16:39 for 20th.

“We were a little off on the girls’ side,” Leiss said. “But not as pronounced as the boys. Meleah has been our most consistent runner.”

Bismarck also won the girls’ race (43) with Century following in a close second (47).

The Midgets will look to forget their West Region meet woes in time for the Class A state meet, which is Oct. 22 in Fargo.

“This certainly adds fire to my engine,” Leiss said. “Hopefully, our boys and girls develop some dissatisfaction and stoke up that competitive fire.”

Class A West Region Meet

At Williston

Boys

Team scores: Bismarck 15, Century 84, Williston 120, Minot 124, Dickinson 149, Mandan 157, Jamestown 266, Belcourt 381.

Individual top 10: 1, Jake Leingang, Bismarck, 15:50. 2, Austin Todd, Bismarck, 16:41. 3, Brandon Berg, Bismarck, 16:42. 4, Lane Kashur, Bismarck, 16:44. 5, Reston Lerew, Bismarck, 16:48. 6, Brennan Goldade, Williston, 17:09. 7, Chris Chamberlain, Williston, 17:11. 8, Cataldo DiDonna, Century, 17:13. 9, Bryce Rohrich, Bismarck, 17:15. 10, Logan Fischer, Bismarck, 17:19.

Dickinson finishers: 11, Jackson Binstock 17:23. 16, Vlad Kutka 17:43. 35, Michael Porter 18:28. 41, Collin Bren 18:41. 46, Paul Gardner 18:50. 51, Joseph Sickler 18:55. 53, Zachary Obrigewitch 18:57. 55, Jacob Kuntz 19:05. 57, Gabriel Dschaak 19:09. 67, Jamison Gray 19:18. 68, Bradley Messer 19:18. 87, Sean Nash 19:51. 97, Kyle Wegner 20:34. 104, Samuel Metz 20:54. 105, Alex Turcotte 20:56. 108, Foster Leiss 21:02. 109, Dallas Zastoupil 21:03. 110, Bradley Svihl, 21:08. 114, Robert White 21:19. 121, Colbie Wanner 21:54.

Girls

Team scores: Bismarck 43, Century 47, Minot 86, Mandan 121, Dickinson 130, Williston 135, Jamestown 283, Belcourt 596.

Individual top 10: 1, Jordan Jacob, Century, 15:10. 2, Alison Allmer, Jamestown, 15:17. 3, Samantha Huether, Minot, 15:20. 4, Brittany Brownotter, Bismarck, 15:22. 5, Lexi Zeis, Bismarck, 15:30. 6, Morgan Pierce, Bismarck, 15:36. 7, Elizabeth Rohrer, Minot, 15:50. 8, Paige Melin, Century, 15:53. 9, Tessa Haussler, Bismarck, 15:54. 10, Jaiden Schuette, Century, 15:59.

Dickinson finishers: 16, Meleah Leiss 16:32. 20, Emily Tyrell 16:39. 26, Whitney Schatz 17:01. 31, Shannon Stockert 17:08. 37, Kelsey Gillen 17:15. 39, Taylor Ihmels 17:21. 46, Kelli Pavlicek 17:32. 50, Morgan Kuntz 17:43. 51, Alyssa Hanson 17:45. 52, Katie Pavlicek 17:47. 59, Shelby Stoltz 17:53. 60, Cienna Levorsen 17:54. 82, Lynae Messer 19:00.

Tags: cross country, sports, midgets, preps