Essex’s Sandahl punches ticket to state

Runners from Southwest Valley, Stanton, Griswold and Essex competed at the Class 1A State Qualifying Cross Country meet in Leon hosted by Central Decatur on Thursday. 
Essex’s Ella Sandahl was the lone area runner to punch a ticket to state. Sandahl ran a 20:56 to place at the meet.
The first two teams and the top 10 individual place winners qualify for the state meet from each of the Class 1A state qualifying meets. The Iowa State Cross Country Meet runs Thursday and Friday at Kennedy Park in Fort Dodge. The Class 1A girls meet begins on Saturday at 2 p.m. and is followed by the boys race.
Southwest Valley finished the night in sixth place out of 8 schools posting team scores, but did not have any qualifiers for state.
“Overall, the kids ran very hard on a great course, but many of them were not at their best, coming off or just catching the seasonal ‘crud’ that is going around,” said Southwest Valley coach Jason Hults. “But the effort was there and I could not be prouder of this team for all the hard work they have put in this season.”
Three Seniors led the way for the Timberwolves in their last races of their high school careers. 
Anis Akhdar finished in 37th place with a time of 20:46.8.  Brody Sparks ran a career personal record to finish in 38th place in 20:55.1. Lucas James ran his season best time of 22:44.7 to finish in 50th place. 
“These seniors have been great leaders all season, along with classmate Quaid Eddy who unfortunately was sick and could not compete today,” Hults said. “Lucas, Quaid, and Brody have been vital parts of the team throughout high school, while Anis was an excellent addition this season as our foreign exchange student.  All four of them will be missed next year, and I thank them for all their hard work throughout their cross country careers.”
Ben Waddell led the charge for the underclassmen with a 53rd place finish in a time of 23:28.0. Teammates Uriah Westerhausen was 56th in 23:59.3, Cameron Becker was 70th in 28:54.1 and Henry Means was 73rd in a time of 32:51.4 to round out the Timberwolves’ scoring.
Essex’s Taylor Juarez added a 39th place finish.
Meredith Roberts led Stanton with a 42nd place finish time of 25:56 and Josie Millikan led Griswold with a 47th place finish time of 29:25.
On the boys’ side, Cailex Williams was the top finisher for the Stanton. Williams led Stanton with a 27th place time of 19:32. Jayden Snow was 41st in 21:00, Eric Kutzli was 54th and Grant Spencer was 62nd.
Griswold was led by Brayden Lockwood’s 23rd place finish time of 19:12.