Three-peat for Witt
By Kristi NIxon
MASON CITY — Make it a three-peat for St. Ansgar senior Riley Witt.
The Class 1A top-ranked runner for the Saints navigated the NIACC cross country course in the Top of Iowa Conference meet in 16 minutes, 14 seconds to earn his fourth first team all-conference finish, the last three on top.
“My sophomore year to my senior year, I think I’ve grown a lot in confidence for sure,” Witt said. “I came in not nearly as nervous as I was the last two years just because I was knowing I’ve worked really hard to get to this point. I knew if I showed up and did what I knew I could do, it would happen.
“I feel really good about it; really happy.”
He ran to 17:15.73 when he won the separated conference meet at Osage due to precautions with COVID-19 and finished seventh as a freshman in 17:45.4. Official results from his sophomore championship season were unavailable.
And Witt hasn’t started his taper yet.
“No, I’ve trained through this week,” Witt said. “We had a workout…I raced on Monday and then had a tempo run on Tuesday, so definitely haven’t tapered yet and I’m excited to get my legs back underneath me, fresh.”
He was joined on the all-conference first team by teammate Cole Hansen, who made a late pass of Osage’s Keagan Hennessey for 10th.
Hennessey said he was just glad he was able to earn first team all-conference.
“It means a lot,” Hennessey said. “I didn’t get it the last two years I ran. I really didn’t think I would get it this time, but I think I got it.
“Last time at conference I was one place away from getting first team all-conference. I’m pretty happy I got it this time. (The late passes) aren’t going to get me down. I’m just happy I got top 15.”
Winning the girls’ title was Osage’s Katelyn Johnston in 18:54, three minutes faster than her runner-up finish in 2020.
“It feels really good,” Johnston said of earning the top spot this time. “I was real disappointed when I didn’t get it last year and I knew I had to work harder so I could get it this year and my team has really encouraged me to push it. They really helped me.”
