Beal City now has a girls’ state championship team.
The school has won several boys’ titles in baseball and football. But the cross country team winning a state title in Division 4 on Nov. 2 at Michigan International Speedway was a first for a girls’ program.
The Aggies posted 120 points at the state meet and finished first out of 27 teams. Breckenridge was second at 136.
“It was a fantastic race,” said Beal City coach Dave King. “Our kids came in ready to run and went out and did their job. It wasn’t a fast day on the course, and times weren’t exceptional. But they raced for a championship, and that’s what they needed to do today. It’s about places, and they ran for their places and did a great job.”
Hannah Steffke led the Aggies with a seventh-place finish in 19:27.0. Hannah Neyer was 14th in 19:57.0, Emily Steffke 18th in 20:12.5, Ariel Salter 37th in 20:52.6, Brenda Faber 44th in 21:04.2, Hayley Neyer 48th in 21:11.5 and Rachel Schwerwin 171st in 25:43.7.
“I knew we had a shot,” King said. “I felt we were under-ranked for most of the season. I knew we were in the top three or four that had a chance.”
“It’s so amazing, I’m so happy for myself and the team even more,” said Hannah Steffke. “We worked so hard for it.”
Beal City finished fourth in the state last year, and the Aggies started thinking about a title in 2014 immediately after last year’s season ended, Steffke noted. “It was really close last year,” she said. “We knew we were one of the top teams and only lost one girl from last year. We had a couple of girls, including myself, getting over sicknesses. Everyone gave it their all, no matter what.”
Course conditions were muddy because of heavy rains which stopped prior to race time. The Division 4 girls race was the first of eight races for the day.
“I was close to a PR,” Steffke said. “With the way the course was today, it was super muddy and sucked in your feet and didn’t want to let you go.”
“Our one senior on the team ran her lifetime best and got an all-state position,” King said, referring to Hannah Neyer. “She broke 20 minutes for the first time in her life. It was her last high school race but finished with an all-state medal and state championship. She was key to making that happen. Her finish was big for us.”
Salter and Faber are freshmen. Talking about them, King indicated that “[t]hey worked hard all summer long, came in, and stepped in for what was already a good team coming back. We will have a good team coming back next year.”
“My youngest sister is coming up and she’s really excited,” Steffke said.
King noted that the Beal City football and volleyball teams are highly-ranked in their respective postseason tournaments.
“From the history of the people I talked to, I think this might be the first girls’ state championship in Beal City,” King said.