Bulldog freshman Maas qualifies for Class 3A state meet

WAVERLY – Lydia Maas admits she didn’t want to let anybody down.

She certainly did enough to make Bulldog faithful proud by qualifying for her first state meet as a freshman by finishing fifth out of 83 runners at the Class 3A state qualifier in Waverly on Wednesday, Oct. 21.

Maas ran 18 minutes, 46.77 seconds to reserve her spot at Fort Dodge’s Kennedy Park on Friday, Oct. 30.

“I’m really excited,” Maas said. “Going into this meet, the goal was top-five which I did end up doing. So, that was really good.

“I got around 18:47, what I’ve been hearing. The goal was to be in 18:40s somewhere, around 18:45 was my ultimate goal. So, that will be something I shoot for next week.”

Maas has never been to the state course, but is looking forward to it.

“I’ve never been there,” Maas said. “I am really excited. I had more nerves for this race than I did looking at state because here you have to place well, you have to qualify. After that, you still want to do well at state, but I feel as a freshman there is less pressure going into that.”

The qualifier at Waverly was considered to be one of the toughest meets going in with the top five finishers all in the top-20 individual rankings via the IATC, Maas among them. Finishing just ahead of Maas was IF-A/AGWSR’s Ellie Meyer, who she yet again closed the gap on from 39 seconds to 11.

“I was really proud of myself with how it went,” Maas said. “Towards the end, I could see some of the girls who finished third and fourth, so it was reassuring to know that I was that close to them. I wasn’t two minutes behind or anything.”

There was a strong group of supporters from Hampton area on hand to watch her run, which she said pushed her through.

“I think just knowing that everybody was watching and I didn’t want to let anybody down,” Maas said of competing. “Not that I wouldn’t have, but it’s always in the back of your head, you want to make people proud.”

The Bulldog boys’ team finished 12th out of 13 teams with 335 points with the top finisher coming from Jace Spurgeon (42). The top 15 individuals and three teams qualify.

Individual champions from each race were Charles City’s Kiki Connell and Center Point-Urbana’s Eli Larson. The Stormin’ Pointers boys won the team title with 54 points to edge Marion (55). The girls’ race saw a rare three-way tie for first between Decorah, Waverly-Shell Rock and Center Point-Urbana, all with 81 points.

The Bulldog girls didn’t have enough runners to field a team.

2020 Class 3A District Meet at Waverly

Girls Team Scoring

1. Decorah 81*; 2. Waverly-Shell Rock 81*; 3. Center Point-Urbana 81*; 4. Benton Community 106; 5. Charles City 109; 6. IF-A/AGWSR 129; 7. Marion 134; 8. South Tama County 256; 9. Vinton-Shellsburg 264; 10. Independence 271; 11. Webster City 278; 12. Clear Lake 304.

* denotes tiebreaker

Hampton-Dumont (no team score) – 5. Lydia Maas 18:46.77; 77. Anne Henrichs 26:25.90; 79. Kimberly Guillen 26:55.16.

IF-A/AGWSR (129)– 4. Ellie Meyer 18:38.16; 9. Teah Miller 19:56.80; 14. Abby Harding 20:23.74; 49. Kate Pfaltzgraff 22:59.33; 55. Kyla Oppold 23:42.48; 59. Zoey Carter 23:54.52; 65. Trinity Rotgers 24:53.26.

Boys Team Scoring

1. Center Point-Urbana 54; 2. Marion 55; 3. Decorah 63; 4. Waverly-Shell Rock 88; 5. Clear Lake 128; 6. Webster City 164; 7. Benton Community 213; 8. Charles City 216; 9. Vinton-Shellsburg 278; 10. South Tama County 282; 11. IF-A/AGWSR 301; 12. Hampton-Dumont 335; 13. Independence 346.

Hampton-Dumont (335)– 42. Jace Spurgeon 18:21.17; 59. Brandon Hisler 18:55.17; 71. Zayden Erdman 19:20.49; 80. Marshal Rust 19:54.03; 83. Eli Fink 20:42.99; 86. Andyn Showalter 20:45.57.