Oct. 27—MITCHELL — After three years of knocking on the door, the Mitchell Christian boys cross country team broke through with a history-making performance at the Class B state meet in Rapid City.
That was worth celebrating on Tuesday morning at MCS. Celebrating with donuts before classes began on Tuesday morning, the Mitchell Christian students, staff and community members commemorated a standout cross country season and the school's first team cross country title. It was a clean sweep for the Golden Eagles, with senior standout Silas Holdeman earning his third Class B individual state title, as well. Mitchell Christian was Class B boys team runner-up in each of the last three seasons entering 2026, taking second to Philip each time.
"I've been doing cross country for seven years and that's what everyone works towards, is a state championship," MCS senior Luke Mentele said. "It was a really cool moment and a huge blessing from God to finally see that happen."
"It's been their goal since the first practice this year," MCS co-head coach Jill Nydam said of the state team title. "That's been the focus in every practice, every training session, every time they've been on the course. They knew they were going to give it their best and see where it ended up but it was very rewarding to earn the championship on Saturday."
For Holdeman, the course at Hart Ranch Camping Resort outside of Rapid City was the site of his biggest cross country heartbreak in 2024, losing out on the individual state championship that season by three-hundredths of a second. He said Saturday was a chilly morning, so he and his teammates kept their extra layers on until close to race time and then he made it a point to stay in the forward pack just off the lead. He said he learned from starting out too hard in 2024.
The course had been changed to include a small loop and two big loops, and Holdeman said he made his move on the first big loop to take over the lead. Leading the race, he sensed Mentele might be close behind but knew a 1-2 finish was good news for the Golden Eagles.
"It felt good crossing the finish line, but I knew Luke was going to be very close," Holdeman said. "Honestly, he has really worked on his kick, so if it came down to it, he would have a crazy kick to close it."
Holdeman won the race in 16 minutes, 7.7 seconds, with Mentele 11 seconds behind him in 16:18.6.
"I looked at Silas and I was like, 'We did it, we finally did it,'" Mentele said. "That was the last cross-country race of my career. It was just a great way to go out and I couldn't have been prouder of my teammates, too."
It was not a straight line to the state championship for the Golden Eagles boys. Mentele was injured earlier in the season and junior Sawyer Holdeman was hurt in the week leading up to the state meet. Sawyer Holdeman finished 17th individually, while juniors Luke Atnip and Brady Asbenson — which the coaches said were training partners all year — fittingly came in 30th and 31st, respectively.
"It all made us realize this wasn't guaranteed to any of us," Mentele said. "We were thinking Philip lost some guys, it was our time now. But you have some injuries and you realize that there's no guarantees. Each week of training is so valuable and we're not going to get this chance again."
"Throughout the year, we've kind of had the thought that we know that we're going to be one of the top-seeded teams in the state for Class B, and so we act like it but we definitely train like it, too," Silas Holdeman added. "Train our hardest, do our best every practice, every workout, but overall we just wanted to go into the last race feeling good. We needed to be mentally prepared and we were."
Mitchell Christian also celebrated a strong girls performance, which included a ninth-place team finish with a team that included seventh-place finisher Laura Nemec, who is a freshman. Seventh-grader Lerae DeLine, seniors Amy Henderson and Trudie Hofer and sophomore Nicole Kleinsasser also powered the MCS girls.
Combined, the Golden Eagles won the South Dakota Cross Country Coaches Association's Class B combined team award, as the school with the lowest combined score between boys and girls race.
It's the first SDHSAA team state championship in school history that came in a sport other than basketball and the third overall. It's the first Golden Eagles' athletic team title since 2006 when Mitchell Christian won the Class B girls basketball championship.
"The school has always rallied around the kids," MCS co-head coach Julie Holdeman said. "It's just fun to have a celebration and honor the successes of all of the kids and the efforts they've put into the season."