By Matt Gade

605 Sports

PHILIP — On Oct. 25, the Philip Scotties will look to achieve their fourth consecutive state cross-country title. A feat no other Class B boys team has done.

But the Scotties head coach, Ralph Kroetch, knows it won’t come easy. All five of his runners will need to run to their potential if they hope to come out of Huron with their fourth championship.

“It’s gonna be a dog fight. It really is,” Kroetch said. “Mitchell Christian is right there. They were second to us the last two years, and they are out to win it. Their lead guy, Silas (Holdeman) was champion two years ago, got clipped last year. He'll be out to get that number one spot. Numbers-wise, numbers say we can't catch him. But race day is race day.”

Kroetch noted he thinks it’ll be tough to catch Holdeman for the No. 1 individual finish, but is hopeful one of his runners might be able to catch him.

It’s really the Scotties' depth that Kroetch is hoping will lead to their fourth consecutive title.

“Having the depth has basically helped every year we've won it,” senior Jack Peterson said. “Because we just have had five guys in front of everyone else's third guy, and it's helped a lot.

“We all run together in practice, and our workouts were all side by side, usually, and just pushing each other, having some friendly competition during practice as well.”

Philip's Jack Peterson wins the Region 5B cross country meet on Wednesday at Lake Waggoner Golf Course in Philip. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

Kroetch said the friendly competition amongst his runners is sometimes more intense than when they race other schools.

“We're really quite competitive against each other,” senior Baylor Burns said. “Like, last year, he (Peterson) beat me a lot, but now I'm beating him a few more times, and it's kind of a back-and-forth thing, but we really push each other.”

This past Wednesday, Peterson and Burns went 1-2 at the Region 5B cross country meet at the Scotties' home course of Lake Waggoner Golf Course. Peterson ran a 16:26.28 ahead of Burns’ 16:39.87.

The Scotties' fellow runners of David McKinley, Creston Burns and Aidan Craven finished 7-8-9 at regions to lead the Scotties to the team title.

Kroetch said the team’s success over the years comes from the time and effort they put in during the off-season, but also the support they receive at home, in addition to the competitiveness of his runners.

“They are very self-motivated. We are family,” Kroetch said. “No one is rooting against their own teammates, so to speak. You see that once in a while, but you don't see that here, but they will beat the crap out of each other at practice. I mean, yeah, no. One day we were down at the track and Baylor had said something to say to Jack about, ‘I'm gonna take you out in 68 seconds. See how you like that.’ Jackson, ‘just bring it. Just bring on.’ They did get a little banter while they're at the track, but it's all in fun… It's a family.”

“We have families full of enthusiastic people that are very supportive. Their idea of fun is to go spend the weekend in the hills, run in the morning, play some mini golf, run in the afternoon, and at the end of the weekend, they'll go run a half-marathon.”

Peterson said he probably only takes a week off from running during the year, after the state cross-country meet, and then he’s back training.

Kroetch said for a lot of his runners, their parents were former cross country and track runners back in their day, and where his current group gets their motivation from.

For Burns, he said his older brother, Wakely, is the one who pushed him into running. Wakely, who graduated in 2024, was a part of the Scotties' first two state championship teams.

“I would say it's really my older brother, Wakely. He really encouraged me to (run), and he was a great runner, and just really motivated me.”

Peterson said a lot of those older guys who graduated ahead of him, including Wakely, really pushed him to become a better runner, and he said he felt like he pushed them, too. Knowing that if they weren’t running fast enough, he was going to try and take their spot. Peterson said last year, when he did get his chance on the varsity, he really hasn’t let up since.

Now the Scotties return to Huron next Saturday for the South Dakota High School Activities Association’s state cross-country meet at Broadland Creek Golf Course.

The site where the Scotties' win streak began as Philip won the Class B state title in 2022 at Broadland Creek Golf Course.

“It's got the draws in the middle. We like hills. Obviously, we train them all the time, and it makes you strong.” Kroetch said. “So what little hill there is, we try to use that to take advantage.”

While each course has its struggles and weaknesses for runners, the Scotties feel like they are hitting their peak at the right time heading into state.

“I like the course, personally. When I ran it, it is a little long, but I think it'll be a good one to run,” Peterson said. “I think we're looking good. We maybe could drop a few seconds off, but I think we'll be right in that lead pack and in striking distance, hopefully for winning as an individual for one of us.”

In addition to Silas Holdeman, Mitchell Christian’s Luke Mentele and Silas’ younger brother, Sawyer, have posted top 10 times in the Class B rankings this year. 

Making the Scotties’ depth ever more important in the team standings.

Philip's Aidan Craven competes at the Region 5B cross country meet on Wednesday at Lake Waggoner Golf Course in Philip. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

“I think we're starting to peak now, which is really good, and I'm hoping me and Jack can beat Luke (Mentele), and we can get enough team points to beat them, but it's gonna be really tight,” Burns said. “I'm really excited for this. I think this would be the first time that a Class B team has ever gotten a fourth consecutive team title. So I'm really hoping we do that. We have five really solid runners. And it's really nice to have just a backed up team with so many good runners.”

The Class B boys’ race will be the third race of the day on Saturday, scheduled for a 1 p.m. (CT) start.