HURON - The Kadoka Area Kougars did it again.

The defending Class B girls cross country champions repeated at Huron's muddy Broadland Creek Golf Course on Saturday in dominating fashion. The Kougars registered nine points on the strength of a second-place finish by Shaley Herber, a fifth-place finish from Abby Niehoff and an 11th-place finish from Tia Carlson to literally run away from second-place Lemmon on a golf course that was more swampland than prairie. Every runner was mud-splattered 200 meters into the race.

"It was tough out there," Carlson said. "The finish especially was really muddy and slick."

The win eased the pressure of expectations that had been building on the Kougars since they won the 2007 team championship on the same course.

"It feels great," said Niehoff, the only senior on the team. "There was a lot of pressure. Everybody was telling us that we were going to win it again no problem, so it was a little scary."

The Kougars destroyed the rest of the Class B field with their top three, but also got strong performances from Alex Smiley (23rd) and Emmy Antonsen (28th).

"They could have won Class A, too," St. Thomas More/Rapid City Christian head coach Kim Richardson said as Kadoka picked up their trophy.

The Kougars could be forced to deal with another season of great expectations next year as they return four of the five members from their two-time defending championship team.

"We're going to work even harder next year," Smiley, a freshman, said. "We're going to miss Abby a lot, she's our best runner, but we're going to come back, work hard and try our best."

Listening to her young teammate talk about missing her next season obviously had an emotional effect on Niehoff.

"I feel like I'm going to start crying," Niehoff said. "I'm really happy right now, but it's a little bit sad, too."

The Kadoka repeat overshadowed a remarkable performance by the Kraft family of Wessington Springs. Freshman Mindy Kraft won the individual Class B title by covering the 4,000-meter course in a time of 17 minutes, 3.9 seconds to better Herber by nearly 12 seconds. 2007 champion Hillary Krein of Eureka-Bowdle finished third.

Kraft's brothers - Mitch, Drew and Jase - all finished in the top 25 to lead the Spartans to the Class B boys' title. Twins Mitch and Drew are both juniors and Jase is a seventh-grader. Cordell Muilenberg finished 13th for Wessington Springs.

Eureka-Bowdle's Jeffrey Mettler, a junior, won the boys' individual race in a time of 17:04.3 seconds.

McIntosh, led by sophomore Marcus Hansen's fifth-place finish, took third place behind Wessington Springs and Estelline. McIntosh has a solid future as Hansen, Kyle Roubideaux, Matthew Seiler and Jaden Meier are all sophomores. Ambrose Spotted Elk, McIntosh's fifth runner, is a freshman.

Lemmon's Brant Haase and Mychal Bierwagen took 11th and 17th place, respectively for the Cowboys, while Wall's Collin Huether took 21st.