For the second straight year, North Union’s Riley Bauer is the Class 1A state cross-country champion as the Warrior senior placed first at the state meet held on Saturday, Oct. 28 at the Lakeside Golf Course just north of Fort Dodge.
With temperatures in low 40’s and slight 10 mile per hour wind, Riley covered the 3.2 mile course with his clocking of 16:14.2, which was three seconds faster than runner-up Sean McDermott of Madrid as a total of 149 runners competed in the race.
“I just went out and ran my race, it was my last race and I wanted to do well,” said Bauer about his race. “I did not feel my best running today but I had to gut it out. The last mile really hit me hard and I slowed down a lot.
“I could hear the runners behind me and I was determined not to let anyone pass me coming down the home stretch. Coming down that big hill before the finish line gave me some much needed momentum. Defending your title is a lot of pressure but after it is done, it is pretty rewarding.”
Bauer won last year’s state title in 16:09.7 while finishing in 65th place in 2015 as a sophomore with his time of 18:09.6 and was sixth overall as a freshman in 2014 in 16:44.2.
For more on this story, please see the Nov. 2 issue of Kossuth County Advance.