HIGHMORE — The Timber Lake Panthers boys’ team and the Ipswich Tiger girls’ squad were crowned champions at Wednesday’s Region 4B Cross Country meet, the final meet before Oct. 26’s State “B” Meet in Huron.
Timber Lake ended the day with 20 team points to edge runner up Lower Brule by three points. Faulkton Area was a distant third with 40 points. The top three teams at regional meets qualify for the state meet. Local schools to field full teams included Sunshine Bible Academy in 8th with 75 points, Wessington Springs, 81 points in ninth and Highmore-Harrold in 10th with 94.
Dylan Mollman of McIntosh took the individual title in the boys’ 5K, breaking the tape in 15:57.51 to win by nearly 30 seconds of runner up Andrew Sorensen of Faulkton Area. Scott Obago, Jr., of Lower Brule finished third. The top 20 individual runners qualify for the state meet, regardless of their team’s performance.
Local runners earning a spot in next week’s “B” state meet include AJ Neely of Wessington Springs, who finished sixth on Tuesday. Everett Paul of SBA also qualified, edging under the line in 19th place.

Ipswich dominated the girls’ race, putting its three scoring runners in the top five and finishing with 8 points in the meet. Sully Buttes and Faulkton Area earned state berths, finishing second and third with 26 and 27 points, respectively. Wolsey-Wessington was the only local team to field a full squad, finishing in fifth place with 58 points.
Ipswich runners Tessa Kilber and Emily DeRaad finished first and second, with Kilber clocking a time of 18:59.95. Dani Frost of Sully Buttes finished third.
Local runners Hannah Terkildsen of Sanborn Central (8th place), Highmore-Harrold’s Maddie Knox (15th) and Ronja Neumann of Wolsey-Wessington (17th) all punched their ticket to the state meet with their finishes.
Full qualifier and local results are in today’s Sports Stats section.