The end-of-season awards for the Andes Central/Dakota Christian Cross Country team were given out last Wednesday, November 18, at the Dakota Christian School. Letter winners on the team were: Isabella Brouwer, Sonya Hansum, Regan Hubers, Lexi Schoenfelder, Peter Backes and Tony Hansum.

The Most Valuable Girl runner was Isabella Brouwer. Isabella was the top runner all season for the Thunder and medaled in all of her Meets. She was the overall winner in the Mitchell Christian and Wagner Meets. Due to a late season injury Isabella was unable to run in the State Meet even though she was a State Meet Qualifier.

Most Valuable for the Boys was Peter Backes. Peter set a goal of qualifying for the State Meet which he met. Peter challenged himself every day in practice and broke the 20 minute barrier a few times. The only thing between Peter and medaling at the State Meet next year is some consistent summer running.

Our Most Improved Girl runner was Lexi Schoenfelder. As a seventh grader, this was Lexi’s first year running at the Varsity Level. She steadily improved her times and places throughout the season and finished a very respectable 49th out of 120 runners at the State Meet.

The most improved runner for the Boys was Tony Hansum. Tony improved very dramatically in the mid to late season, but then had some minor leg issues that caused him to miss being a state qualifier. Next year will be the year for Tony!

Coach Lucas is looking to return to normal and have a summer running camp again using the State Park areas by Fort Randall. There are some excellent motivational speakers to have speak to us as well as college coaches to help our runners build individual running programs.

Congratulations Runners!