Sturgis' Madeleine Takahashi ran a time of 18 minutes, 55.99 seconds over 5 kilometers in the girls' championship race at the Nike Cross Nationals Heartland Regional at Yankton Trails in Sioux Falls on Saturday to finish 17th out of 112 runners from across the region.

Takahashi, a junior at Sturgis Brown High School, was the third-fastest South Dakotan in the race behind Sioux Falls Roosevelt's Seanna Kautz - the South Dakota Class AA cross country individual runner-up - and Erin Hargens. Dowling Catholic (Iowa) teammates Ashlie Decker (17:53) and Katie Flood (18:00) took the top two spots in the girls' race.

There were several other West River runners in the girls' race, as Takahashi's high school teammate, Tera Potts, took 50th place with a time of 19:59.24, Douglas' Bailey Eich took 56th at 20:13.19 and Todd County's Lottie Grimshaw - the South Dakota Class A individual champion - finished 60th with a time of 20:17.50.

Sturgis' Damien Schuster finished 62nd out of 175 participants in the boys' championship 5K race with a time of 16:45.22. Parkston's Alex Muntefering - the South Dakota Class A runner-up - was the top South Dakota boys' finisher in 9th place with a time of 16:00.24. Jakub Zivec, a Czech national who is not allowed to compete on the varsity at Grand Rapids (Minn.) High School, won the boys' race with a time of 15:23.21 running unattached.

Rapid City Stevens runners Riley Coates (40th), Nate Richardson (66th), Tom Kjerengtroen (88th), Mike Scharn (109th), and Alex Hegert (156th) also ran in the race. Their results were reported in Sunday's Journal but those reported places were not those runners' overall finishes, but their places amongst runners that were competing attached to a team.