By Matt Gade

605 Sports

HURON — For the second-straight year, Hill City’s Tate Grabow has claimed the Class A boys’ state championship at the South Dakota High School State Activities Association cross-country meet.

Grabow, seeded second coming into Saturday’s race, said he finally peaked at the right time this year.

“Me, and the other kid, Peyton (Tetzlaff), we went out super fast the first mile, like 10 seconds faster than I usually go out our first mile. So it was a battle,” Grabow said. “It kind of added a level of fun to the race, just being able to battle with somebody. This course is considerably harder with just those little hills. So I'm very happy with it, and especially with my first mile being that fast.

“It feels awesome. I'm so glad that all the Hill City people showed up today. I'm just blessed and happy to go back-to-back.”

Grabow clocked in a winning time of 15:42.86, defeating Tetzlaff, of West Central, who came in at 16:18.56.

As soon as he crossed the finish line, Grabow wasn’t done racing. 

The Ranger darted back out to the roughly last 600-meter mark and cheered on his team. Looking to help encourage them to get ahead of their team seeding.

Hill City took second place with 47 points behind Sioux Falls Christian’s 37.

“I think we're just all happy with it,” Grabow said of the finish.

Despite a rough start to the season, Grabow managed to bounce back when he needed to most.

Prior to regions, Grabow had just the ninth-best time before his performance during the Region 5A meet put him in second and within just a couple of seconds of Tetzlaff.

“I did have a rough couple of meets at the start and I was in my head. I didn't have the right mentality at the start of the season,” Grabow said.  “And that just kind of shows how much of the sport is actually mental. I just am really blessed that I found the right headspace, started visualization, and I was able to come out here and win it.”

As Saturday’s race marked the end of Grabow’s last official high school race, the two-time defending state champion said he plans on running in college but hasn’t quite made up his mind yet.

“I've been touring some colleges and just seeing what, what really I think will fit for me,” he said. “I'm mainly looking for, like, I want to be a pilot, so I'm looking for those flight schools and stuff like that. And I'm more focused on how well the flight school is.”

For now, Grabow said he’s enjoying the moment.

“I'm just blessed, and I'm so thankful, and it feels amazing,” he added.