DeGonia finishes strong at state

FORT DODGE — Creston junior Riley DeGonia had a strong finish in her state cross country debut Friday.

In a field of the state’s elite Class 3A runners at Lakeside Golf Course in Fort Dodge, DeGonia had a conservative start and then made up 14 positions over the final two miles of the 3.1-mile race. She finished 92nd among 125 runners in a time of 21:15.26.

Coach Maggie Arnold noted that DeGonia matched the time of three-time Creston state qualifier Paige Davis in Davis’s state meet debut as a sophomore in 2018, when Davis placed 84th.

“At mile two we checked our watches and it was a pretty typical two-mile time for Riley, and we found some common opponents that she’s had this year and she was right where she’s been at, so we were pleased,” Arnold said. “We were even more happy when we found out she had moved up that many spots during the race.”

DeGonia said she was excited before the start of her first state meet race, but tried to dial back the urge to go out too quickly and use too much energy early on the soggy 5,000-meter course.

“At the beginning I decided to go out a little slower than normal, because I knew there were going to be a lot of girls who were fast paced and I decided to have a little more energy towards the end,” DeGonia said. “When I got to the last mile I knew I had to get going and pick it up some more.”

DeGonia, who placed 12th in the State Qualifying Meet and 17th at the Hawkeye Ten Conference Meet, settled into her stride with some familiar runners.

“I kept with some of the Glenwood girls because I always ran with them in other meets this year,” DeGonia said. “It was more challenging than I thought it would be, because of the mud after all of the rain. It was kind of sloshy and when you went up the hills you thought were going to fall.”

Those conditions, and a more conservative start, kept DeGonia from surpassing her personal best of 20:25 from the State Qualifying Meet, when she zoomed to seventh place through the first mile at Winterset. Still, Arnold said her state qualifier ran a good strategic race.

“I’m really pleased with her final time of 21:15 today,” Arnold said. “I’m sure the real low areas of the course were soft today. The champion from our state qualifier meet from ADM ended up second today. Everyone from our qualifying meet ran really well up here today.”

ADM’s Geneva Timmerman ran 19:06.41 to place second behind Paityn Noe of Ballard, who won in 18:12.74. Solon won the 3A team title with 77 points, with Ballard second at 103 and Dallas Center-Grimes third with 127 points. Harlan took seventh at 212 and Glenwood was 11th at 239.

DeGonia extended Creston’s streak of advancing at least one girl to state since 2009. Next year she will look to become the school’s eighth girl to compete multiple times at state. The others were Donna Dickinson, Beth Finn, Karla Fisher, Emily Wignall, Maria Mostek, Brielle Baker, Braelyn Baker and Paige Davis. Mostek and Braelyn Baker were four-time qualifiers.

“It was really exciting to experience something new,” DeGonia said. “I heard people I didn’t even know encouraging me to keep going and that I was doing good. I really enjoyed it.”