RAPID CITY – Ellie Abraham returned to the top of the podium at the Class AA State Girls’ Cross Country Meet on Saturday at Hart Ranch.

The Brookings sophomore placed first with a meet-record 5K time of 18 minutes, 23.48 seconds.

“We had a little bit of a plan, but in cross country it’s hard to make a definite plan because you don’t know what everyone else is going to do; and there is no chance to call a timeout and regroup,” said Brookings coach Chris Gruenhagen. “We knew who some of the main players were going to be, so we just kind of said hey, get out there and try not to get stuck leading because it was fairly windy out. Wait and make a move to take the lead when the time feels right.”

Defending champion Courtney Klatt, of Sioux Falls Lincoln, was runner-up in 18:39.72.

Aberdeen Central’s Melanie Jacobs (18:42.76), Yankton’s Maddy McClure (19:03.01) and Sturgis’ Kylee Bennett (19:03.23) rounded out the top five.

Last year, Abraham finished third, McClure fifth and Jacobs sixth.

“(Abraham) got out hard, which is good, and got out to the front and tucked in behind McClure probably about 600 meters in,” Gruenhagen added. “Klatt got up into that mix, too, and it was the three of them.

“Eventually Klatt took the lead and Ellie just got behind her and they ran neck-and-neck; McClure fell off a little bit. About 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 miles I could kind of see maybe some struggle out of Klatt, where she didn’t look as smooth; and Ellie looked super comfortable. So I just said, go when you feel the time is right. That was the only que Ellie was looking for and she just took off, pushed the pace and was able to get away and stretch it out. It was very impressive. She went through a mile in 5:25; and when your mile PR is 5:05, that’s out pretty hard for a 5K. But she held on really well, kept the pace hard. In the long run, that’s what she was going to have to do; and she did it.”

Abraham took fourth in her debut as a seventh-grader in 2014 and then was victorious as an eighth-grader in 2015, before posting the third-place showing a year ago.

“She is well deserving and does everything she needs to do on top of all the other things she’s involved in,” noted Gruenhagen. “I’m really impressed with just how she handles everything. She had a lot of people out there running point to point; you heard a lot of people cheering for her that I couldn’t even tell you who they were maybe, so she had a lot of support out there not just from the Bobcat family but everybody.

“I’m really proud of her – second state cross country title and she has two years to go, so we’ll see what the future has for her.”

Abraham also has a pair of Eastern South Dakota Conference crowns (2016 and 2017) to go with a third-place finish (2014) and a fourth-place showing (2015).

Brandon Valley totaled 99 team points to win its first team championship. Defending-champion Sioux Falls Lincoln (104) was second and Aberdeen Central (109) third.

Rapid City Stevens’ Bryanna Kuhn (19:11.28) was sixth, Brandon Valley’s Haylee Waterfall (19:18.32) seventh, Rapid City Central’s Delaney Kost (19:20.94) eighth, Yankton’s Madisyn Bietz (19:26.7) ninth and Brandon Valley’s Lauren Wells (19:28.36) 10th.

Completing the Lynx’s team score, Allison Rief (19:41.08) was 18th, Kylie Foss (20:14.86) 31st and Katie Wentzy (20:15.21) 33rd.

Brookings was 10th in the team standings with 269 points.

“I was really impressed with that,” Gruenhagen said. “I thought the way things maybe had been playing out with some injuries and some soreness this year and the way some other teams had been running, I thought we maybe would be around 13th. But they really stepped up.”

Sophomore Ainsley Powers came in in 42nd with a 20:39.64 clocking.

Josie Bono, a junior, ran a career-best 20:40.52 to finish 44th.

“Behind Ellie, it helps to have a 1-stick there; but Ainsley Powers has been battling a tight, aggravated calf for three weeks and we’ve kind of just been piecing together some training when we can,” Gruenhagen noted. “For her to come out and run very close to one of her best times of the season and finish 42nd was a great effort for her to gut it out and do it for herself and for her team.

“Josie Bono – 44th place, she PR’ed by a minute. I mean, just, wow. I don’t know how you say race of the day when you have a state champion, but she really ran well and that really helped our team score.”

“The girls behind her, I felt, worked together well throughout the race with Liz Schaar and Brooke Wika pushing each other to be our 4 and 5. Mariah McKibben and Marah Dobrenski have been solid runners for us all year.

“I’m really impressed, really happy; it’s a great group of kids. They ran well today and it’s good cap off on the season for them.”

Wika, a junior, was 86th in 21:57.47 and Schaar, a freshman, finished 96th with a time of 22:23.09 to round out the team tally.

McKibben (22:28.28), a sophomore, ended up 100th and Dobrenski (24:21.59), a senior, took 120th.

Team scores

Brandon Valley 99, Sioux Falls Lincoln 104, Aberdeen Central 109, Yankton 123, Rapid City Stevens 139, Sioux Falls Washington 179, Rapid City Central 180, Sioux Falls O’Gorman 229, Sioux Falls Roosevelt 248, Brookings 269, Pierre 284, Sturgis 288, Harrisburg 321, Spearfish 377, Watertown 378, Huron 448, Mitchell 451.

Individual top 30 (of 120)

1, Ellie Abraham, B, 18:23.48; 2, Courtney Klatt, SFL, 18:39.72; 3, Melanie Jacobs, AC, 18:42.76; 4, Maddy McClure, Y, 19:03.01; 5, Kylee Bennett, St., 19:03.23; 6, Bryanna Kuhn, RCS, 19:11.28; 7, Haylee Waterfall, BV, 19:18.32; 8, Delaney Kost, RCC, 19:20.94; 9, Madisyn Bietz, Y, 19:26.7; 10, Lauren Wells, BV, 19:28.36; 11, Lia Neumiller, St., 19:29.25; 12, Sydney Lather, SFW, 19:32.38; 13, Hailey Uhre, RCS, 19:35.57; 14, Analise Levesque, SFL, 19:36.41; 15, Alea Hardie, SFO, 19:37.09; 16, Zoe Douglas, AC, 19:39.63; 17, Angela Hovdenes, Sp., 19:41; 18, Allison Rief, BV, 19:41.08; 19, Jaide Geurts, SFR, 19:42.19; 20, Makaen DeGeest, RCC, 19:45.24; 21, Ellie Karolevitz, Y, 19:47.79; 22, Gracin Larson, RCC, 19:53.19; 23, Hunter Martell, P, 19:53.74; 24, Abby Kopecky, AC, 19:55.83; 25, Eric Dykstra, RCS, 19:57.16; 26, Hannah Dumansky, SFL, 19:57.52; 27, Chloe Harbaugh, SFL, 19:59.03; 28, Ella Kolb, SFW, 20:04.43; 29, Jordan Hermansen, AC, 20:11.6; 30, George Sugrue, SFO, 20:13.29.

Other BV scorers – 31, Kylie Foss, 20:!4.86; 33, Katie Wentzy, 20:15.21.

Other BHS participants – 42, Ainsley Powers, 20:39.64; 44, Josie Bono, 20:40.52; 86, Brooke Wika, 21:57.47; 96, Elizabeth Schaar, 22:23.09; 100, Mariah McKibben, 22:28.28; 120, Marah Dobrenski, 24:21.59.