By Matt Gade

605 Sports

CUSTER — Fresh off a Black Hills Conference first-place finish, Hill City’s Tate Grabow is relishing the few races left as the senior gears up to defend his Class A state title in two weeks at the state meet in Huron.

“It's bittersweet,” Grabow said of getting to defend his state title and compete with his team at state. “We have a chance to do so great, but you know, I'm gonna miss it. I'm gonna miss these guys. I am so excited, and I'm so blessed for (state), and I think our guys will perform greatly at the state meet. I'm kind of aiming for the team above self, kind of deal. I want the team to do well before I do.”

While Grabow is the defending state champion, the Ranger does expect to be challenged once he gets to Huron to meet the other Class A runners in the state.

Currently, Grabow sits in eighth place in Class A with his best run of the season coming in at 16:00.9 in August.  

Deuel’s Caden Hourigan sits atop Class A with a time of 15:24.6, run on Sept. 27 at the Castlewood Invite.

Grabow said he’s hoping all his training in the hills pays off once the Rangers get to Huron, where the course is a little flatter than the Rocky Knolls Golf Course in Custer, where Grabow claimed the conference crown.

“I think the kind of the strategy is to be patient, and then with like 800 to go, I think that's where I kind of make my move. That kind of plays into my strength of hills,” Grabow said. “A lot of times, I get myself really worked up before races. 

“So that's kind of just always how it goes,” Grabow said of getting to an early lead. ”And I think it's kind of not the smartest way to race, but I think it's the most gutsy, and it kind of challenges people to see who has the most guts.”

Hill City's Tate Grabow will look to defend his Class A state title at the state meet on Oct. 25 in Huron. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

Before the state meet, Grabow and the Rangers have just one race in between with the Region 5A meet on Thursday, Oct. 16, at Hart Ranch.

While the run at the Black Hills Conference might have been Grabow’s worst time of the season, the up-and-down terrain of the Hills was a good challenge for the senior, he said.

“I think this course was just kind of able to show our team's fitness. We've been doing hill workouts all year long. I don’t think this played exactly into our favor, but I think it helped us, as your body kind of adapts two weeks after you run. So we'll have this hard effort for state.”

Grabow finished in 16:43.7, while in other races he’s been within a few seconds of the 16-minute flat mark.

Grabow said he hopes that it was a good way to test his and his teammates' conditioning before reaching the state meet and hopes they can build off it.

“I think we still got limitless amounts of ability to do and perform greatly,” Grabow said. “I think it should be great and an opportunity to get PRs and that sort of stuff.”

The Black Hills Conference was Grabow’s first, first-place finish of the season, but the Ranger said all season he’s been pushed by some of the region’s best runners, including Rapid City Stevens’ Tate Van Beek, which Grabow said only makes him a better runner.

“They helped push me,” Grabow said. “ They give me somebody to key off. They give me that opportunity to visualize, if at the state meet, I was in second, I would have that visualization to be able to go and do something with it.”

For now, Grabow said he’s just enjoying the limited races he has left and is excited to just compete.

“I'm just excited for this opportunity that God gave me,” he said.