By 605 Sports Staff

Philip’s Ralph Kroetch and Sioux Falls Christian’s Luke VanderLeest have been named South Dakota cross-country coaches of the year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

Kroetch led the Scotties to a third consecutive South Dakota Class B state cross-country championship in October. The Scotties used a third-place finish from Jack Peterson, a fifth-place finish from Baylor Burns, an eighth-place finish from Trey Larson, a 10th-place finish from Baylor Burns and an 11th-place finish from David McKinley to edge Mitchell Christian at the 2024 state cross-country meet contested at Hart Ranch outside of Rapid City.

The 2024 Philip boys also were Great Western Plains Conference Champions and Region 5B champions. Philip now has class B state team titles in 2014, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

VanderLeest helped lead the Charger girls to a third consecutive Class A team title in 2024. The Chargers used a second-place finish from Ellie Maddox, a third-place finish from Sadie Pettengill, a fourth-place finish from Jerica Glasser and a sixth-place finish from Natalie Smith to win the 2024 Class A team title. At the Class A state meet contested at Hart Ranch in October Sioux Falls Christian won the Class A team title with 15 points, 67 points ahead of second place Lennox (82).

The 2024 Sioux Falls Christian girls won the Dak XII conference championship and were also Region 2A champions.