Senior Mary Roskens is committing herself to one more cross-country race.
The Blair Bears and she put in hard work — from summer through Thursday's Class B-2 District meet — and extended their season, earning nine state qualifications.
Six BHS girls earned runner-up team honors at Elkhorn Mount Michael, ensuring Roskens another 5 kilometers back at Kearney Country Club. The senior said she's looking forward to Friday's finale knowing she'll have a full team alongside her, which didn't happen last fall when Grace Galbraith, Sophia Baedke and she qualified as individuals.
“I'll just do my best,” Roskens said. “I mean, it's my last cross-country race ever, so I want to give it all I got.”
Nine Bears gave it their all Thursday, too. Hailey Amandus (fifth-place), Allie Czapla (eighth), Roskens (11th), Cayli Penner (13th), Chloe Schrick (14th) and Emily Lamoureux (24th) earned second behind Omaha Duchesne by one point, while BHS boys Nick Wayman (12th), Dawson Fricke (14th) and Nolan Slominski (15th) earned individual qualifications. Slominski earned the last automatic state slot, besting the 16th-place runner to the finish line by just 0.2 seconds.
“It's been a lot of work, especially over the summer,” Penner said. “We all put in a lot of work together.”
“Super hard (work),” Czapla added when asked to comment on the Bears' efforts.
Those efforts appeared clear at districts. Had they not earned a top-3 team finish, five Blair girls still would have qualified for the state meet with their individual times.
“We were ready,” Schrick said, noting that the Bears took it easy in recent practices to save up energy. “We didn't want to work too hard before the race, and then when we got here we just gave it everything we got.”
Amandus was the first Blair runner in for coach Darren Harsin's team. She earned fifth in 20:22.9, starting her final push to the finish line about a mile out.
“It went by really fast,” she said.
Czapla then stopped the clock in 20:34.2 before Roskens finished in 20:43.4. Penner and Schrick, meanwhile, wound up with times of 20:46.1 and 20:47.1, respectively, ahead of Lamoureux's 22:46.5.
“Everyone PR'd,” Roskens said. “Everyone ran a good race. No complaints.”
Wayman earned his own state qualification with a time of 17:26.1. Fricke and Slominski followed suit in 17:32.1 and 17:33.2, while Zac Keeling (18th), Mason Bell (25th) and Zyler Wyman (30th) closed out their seasons on Mount Michael's course.
“I'm very excited,” Amandus said of the prospect of one more big race. “I didn't make it last year, so this year I'm real excited.”
Penner was in agreement.
“It's a really cool opportunity to be apart of it,” she said.
“One last time with the seniors,” Schrick added.
Because, as Roskens reiterated, she's done with 5-kilometer runs after this next one in Kearney.
“I don't want to do it anymore,” she said, laughing. “It will be my last one.”
