While the official cross country season ended in Fort Dodge, some of the best athletes in Iowa joined those from across the Midwest at the Nike Cross Regionals Heartland Championships in Sioux Falls on Sunday.

Several KNIA/KRLS Area athletes were among them in the Championship Races. After narrowly missing a trip to Portland, Oregon, and the Nike Cross Nationals in 2024, Pella’s Canaan Dunham blazed over the snow-covered course to place 2nd and qualify for NXN. He defeated all other Iowans in the race with a time of 15:05.1.

The Pella “Windmills” girls team, made up of the four-time defending state champion Dutch, placed 3rd out of 26 teams in the Heartland region, also defeating all fellow Iowans. Their team score of 114 is among the lowest ever at the event for a 3rd place team. The girls will find out once all Nike regional races are held if they have qualified for the national race in December. Marissa Ferebee placed 16th and Elsie Brenneman was 23rd individually, with Ruth Dunham (52nd), Lizzy Vande Voort (53rd), and Carleigh Altwine (79th) rounding out the team score.

Isaac Rankin of Knoxville placed 81st out of 301 individuals in the boys race to finish his stellar high school career.

The Class 4A state champions in Iowa, “Gaggle” out of Indianola earned a top 10 finish out of 34 scoring teams in the championship event. Reed Robbins placed 37th, Kiefer Barnes was 101st, Isaiah Thomsen placed 112th, Jake Robidoux was 128th, and Paxton Bloom was 168th for the scoring.

Several athletes from the KNIA/KRLS area competed in the multitude of events held througout the day at NXR Heartland — find full results here.