HURON — It was a long wait, but Sioux Falls Christian’s Ellie Maddox stood atop the Class A girls podium again on Saturday. 

The Charger senior won her second career Class A cross-country championship at Broadland Creek Golf Course, covering the 5,000-meter distance in 17 minutes and :32.60 seconds. 

Maddox burst onto the state cross-country scene in 2021, winning the Class A title as an eighth grader. 

Maddox, who finished second in 2024, made her long-awaited return atop the podium and capped off her stellar cross-country career with a state championship. 

“I had a lot of confidence in myself,” Maddox said. “My season has been really good and I just could tell I was a senior because I’ve run a lot of bad races and now I feel like I know how to run a good one.”

Maddox outlasted a fellow competitor for the state championship. Flandreau’s Faith Wiese, who won the 2024 Class A state championship, placed second in 17:41.72 on Saturday. The two seniors pushed each other on the cross-country course one last time Saturday. 

“I’ve raced Faith at regions,” Maddox said. “So I kind of broke away at two miles and that was my goal again. At the start of the second lap was trying to start breaking away. She pushed. She made it hard, but I kind of made that move and I was like ‘OK now I have to stick with it’ and just hold on to it and that’s what I tried to do.” 

Maddox also helped the Chargers win their fourth consecutive Class A cross-country championship. After Maddox, Sadie Pettengill (17:54.82) and Jerica Glasser (17:55.53) placed third and fourth, respectively. Natalie Smith (18:02.59) and Bailey VanderGriend (18:50.72) finished fifth and seventh, respectively. Maxine Ordway (19:17.72) placed 12th, giving the Chargers six runners in the top-12 finishers.

“It just filled my heart so much,” Maddox said about the state championship. “We’ve worked so hard for this. We’ve been running since July. We’ve been wanting it so bad.”

The Chargers scored 12 points, finishing well ahead of second-place West Central (70). 

“We all know how to be there for each other and being able to have that competition in practice I feel like it’s what makes our team so good,” Maddox said. 

Maddox said the Chargers treated the state cross-country meet like any other competition, and again pushed each other to succeed. 

“It’s just each other against each other,” Maddox said. “There’s not a lot of pressure like ‘Oh no this is the state meet.’ This is just another race for us, like any other meet this season.”

For Maddox, she closed the chapter on her high school cross-country career. But she will author her college cross-country career next season at Division I Duke. 

Maddox said running cross country at Sioux Falls Christian will prepare her for the Division I level. 

“It will prepare me to be in the back of the pack and fight for it like I did at Sioux Falls Christian,” Maddox said.