Newton’s Sorensen fights off injury, advances to state cross country meet

PELLA — Alexis Sorensen missed the Little Hawkeye Conference meet last week because of an injury to her sartorius muscle.

She could have entered Wednesday’s Class 3A state qualifying meet with a “why me” attitude.

Instead, Sorensen battled through the pain, got herself into position for a state berth and held on to qualify for the Iowa High School State Cross Country championships for the first time in her career.

“It feels really awesome to qualify, but it’s also hard because my team didn’t qualify,” Sorensen said.

The Newton girls cross country team did not advance to next week’s state meet in Fort Dodge. The season is over for the rest of the Cardinals after they placed fifth in the nine-team field.

The top three teams and top 15 individuals qualified for the 3A state meet. Sorensen was 13th in the girls’ 5K race at Central College, and Audrey Muckler was one spot back of a second state berth in 16th.

“It was a fast race. A couple of girls might have gotten out a little fast,” Newton head girls cross country coach Rachelle Tipton said. “We placed sixth here last year and were fifth today.

“It would have been nice to knock one of those ranked teams off, but we can’t fault the girls. They gave their best effort.”

Class 3A No. 1 Pella had a perfect score at the top of the standings. The Lady Dutch scored 15 points to win the regional championship. The other two state qualifying teams were 3A No. 13 ADM (92) and 3A No. 19 Cedar Rapids Xavier (93), who were separated by one point in second and third, respectively.

Class 3A No. 9 Boone (111) was fourth, Newton scored 137 points in fifth and the rest of the field included Clear Creek-Amana (148), Carlisle (172), Oskaloosa (173) and Fairfield (241).

“Going into it, we targeted Boone, ADM and Xavier and just tried to pass those runners as much as we could,” Sorensen said. “That was the goal.”

Sorensen qualified for the state meet after posting a time of 20 minutes, 7.27 seconds in 13th. Muckler was 16th in 20:27.68, and the 15th and final finisher had a time of 20:08.54.

“We knew she could do it and that it was a possibility,” Tipton said about Sorensen. “It was good to see her get out well and when she had to make that move to get herself into the position she needed to be in, she was able to do that and hold it. It’s very exciting for her.

“Qualifying with the leg injury she’s dealing with shows the mental toughness she has, but she put in the work ahead of time to be ready to go today, too.”

Talia Friedman (21:52.08) was 29th, Alivia Kingery (22:29.7) finished 41st and Sarah Malow (22:48.43) was 48th as the final scoring runners.

Ashlyn Wallace (24:08.43) and Laek Sullivan (26:37.64) were non-scoring runners in 66th and 74th, respectively.

“(Friedman) and (Kingery) ran way faster than their times at Pella last year. It’s a different course, but that was good to see,” Tipton said. “(Malow) got back into the 22s, which was great to see from her, too.

“(Muckler) had low iron today. She’s been battling back from that. She legit left it all out there and emptied her tank at the end.”

While the sartorius muscle was still bothering Sorensen during the race on Wednesday, she said she had great runs on Sunday and Tuesday to get her prepared for the day. Now, it’s about getting healthier for the state meet, which takes place at 2 p.m. on Oct. 31 at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course in Fort Dodge.

“I will try to recover the best I can, get as much rest as possible and go in with an all or nothing mindset,” Sorensen said. “Just going into it, it’s a flat course so I want to PR and do the best I can possibly do. It’s just another race to prove what I can do. I ran well there the first time.”

The Cardinals did not have a senior on the varsity roster this fall. And they could add a group of talented freshmen next season to help push them closer to a state berth.

“We’re super young,” Sorensen said. “I think we have a good shot next year. We’ve grown a lot this season and will continue to grow into next year.”

Class 3A No. 1 Marissa Ferebee of Pella won the girls’ race in 17:44.18. Class 3A No. 4 Elsie Brenneman of Pella was the runner-up in 18:14.25.

The talented field also included 3A No. 14 Lizzy Vande Voort of Pella, 3A No. 20 Ruth Dunham of Pella, 3A No. 22 Carleigh Altwine of Pella and 3A No. 23 Mia Deegan of Xavier, who finished 3-4-5-6.

Notes: The sartorius muscle is located in the anterior compartment of the thigh. It’s the longest muscle in the human body. Injury or strain of the sartorius muscle can cause pain in the front of the thigh and hip. The sartorius muscle can be involved in conditions such as hip flexor strain, knee pain and osteoarthritis. … Newton last ran on the Central College course during the Little Hawkeye Conference meet in 2021. … Tipton competed collegiately at Central College and ran on a similar course as her team did for the Lady Dutch’s home meets. … The 3A state qualifying meet was at Central College because the Pella Sports Complex is currently under construction.