Newton’s Sorensen gains valuable experience at state cross country meet

FORT DODGE — Alexis Sorensen’s sartorius muscle was wrapped up again. But the Newton junior competed in the Iowa High School State Cross Country Championships on Friday and hopes the experience propels her into next season.

Sorensen finished 68th in her first Class 3A state race. But it wasn’t about the final results for the banged up Cardinal.

“I’m not very happy with my time to be honest but just being here is super awesome,” Sorensen said. “Being here and having fun is the goal, and I had fun.”

There were 132 athletes who finished the girls’ 3A 5K race at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course inside Kennedy Park, and Sorensen’s 68th-place finish was clocked in 20 minutes, 28.3 seconds.

The top 15 finishers earn a medal and a spot on the all-state deck. But that wasn’t the goal for Sorensen.

Newton girls head cross country coach Rachelle Tipton was just happy to get one of her top runners to the start line.

“The biggest thing we wanted to do was get here her and for her to not be miserable when she ran,” Tipton said. “That got accomplished.

“Hopefully we can have a bigger goal next year with some better health.”

Class 3A No. 1 Pella won its fourth straight 3A team championship. The Lady Dutch scored 31 points after putting all five scoring runners in the first 16 positions.

Class 3A No. 1 Marissa Ferebee of Pella won her third consecutive individual title. The Arkansas recruit won the race in 17:47.9.

Class 3A No. 2 Des Moines Christian was the team runner-up with 113 points. The rest of the top five included third-ranked Mount Vernon/Lisbon (136), fourth-ranked Sioux Center (165) and sixth-ranked Winterset (181).

The final individual state medalist posted a time of 19:01.5.

“The crowd and energy were amazing,” Sorensen said. “I ran here earlier in the year, and I kept getting boxed in. I knew it was going to be more people. And it was a lot.”

Temperatures at the state cross country meet on Friday and Saturday were less than ideal. It reached as low as 28 degrees on Friday.

Tipton said there’s not much you can do with the weather. Everyone runs in the same conditions, but Sorensen admitted to not liking the cold.

She’s also looking forward to 2026 when Newton brings back every single varsity runner and is expected to add a few talented freshmen, too.

“I wore gloves for more than half the race and then I just threw them off,” Sorensen said. “I love my team. We put in a lot of hard work and they have really good energy. We’ll keep putting in the work and next year is going to be amazing.”

Tipton hopes to gain a few runners outside of next year’s incoming freshmen.

Depth could be the biggest factor in the Cardinals taking a step toward a team state berth.

“We bring everyone back, welcome a few freshmen in and hopefully we can add a few more newbies who are already in high school,” Tipton said. “Numbers help with depth in general. We want to be competitive in both the varsity races and the junior varsity races. We’re already looking forward to next year.”