High School

Tipton’s Noelle Steines joins exclusive company at Iowa state cross country championships

Steines becomes just the second four-time girl state champion, joining Rebekah Topham; Denton breaks 1A meet record

Dana Becker

Tipton's Noelle Steines became just the second girl in Iowa cross country history to win four state titles Saturday. She won the Class 2A race after winning her first three in 1A.
Tipton's Noelle Steines became just the second girl in Iowa cross country history to win four state titles Saturday. She won the Class 2A race after winning her first three in 1A. / NIrmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK

Noelle Steines dominated her way to three consecutive Class 1A state cross country championships competing for Calamus-Wheatland. For her senior year, Steines decided to test herself against the best of the best in 2A.

And the result was the same.

Steines, running for Tipton who she joined the day after the 2023 state cross country meet concluded, clocked a time of 18:12 to secure her fourth state title Saturday in Fort Dodge from Lakeside Golf Course and Kennedy Park. Classes 4A and 3A held their state championships on Friday.

With the win, she becomes just the second Iowa girl to ever win four titles. The first was Griswold’s Rebekah Topham from 2011-14. Topham was a multi-time All-American for Wichita State University.

Steines dominated the field, winning by 19 seconds over Van Meter sophomore Laure Strech. Albia’s McKenna Montgomery, Unity Christian’s Addison Liston and Osage’s Scarlett Byrnes rounded out the Top-5.

Mid-Prairie, ranked second coming in, won the team title over Unity Christian by eight points. Top-ranked Van Meter was third, Tipton finished fourth and Denver, ranked 10th, was fifth.

In 1A, Lili Denton of Council Bluffs St. Albert broke 17 minutes, winning gold in 17:59 over Alta-Aurelia senior Nora Peterson. Chloe Glosser from Pekin, Katelyn Brandhorst of Madrid and teammate Madelyn Grothus were third, fourth and fifth.

Denton’s time broke the 1A class record. 

Earlham claimed team gold over Madrid, Treynor, South Winneshiek and English Valleys, as they had all five counting runners in the Top-31.

Gavin Grunhovd from North Iowa dominated the field in 1A to claim boys gold, clocking a time of 15:57. Woodbine’s Gunner Wagner was second, Matthew Schaul of Maquoketa Valley finished third, Gage Heyne of English Valleys was fourth and Hayden Thompson from Lake Mills was fifth. The first four finishers are all seniors this year.

Top-ranked Lake Mills scored 88 points with all five in the Top-50 for team gold with Ankeny Christian moving up from fifth to earn second. Woodbine, Ogden and Riverside rounded out the Top-5.

In the final race of the year, Grundy Center's Emerson Vokes secured gold in 2A. Vokes, a junior who was the 1A runner-up last year, went 15:37. Alex Torres from Vinton-Shellsburg also a junior, was second followed closely by Brandon Hughes from Spirit Lake and Emmett Swartzentruber of Mid-Prairie.

Team gold went to Oelwein with three in the Top-20. Mid-Prairie was second followed by Unity Christian, Denver and Chariton.

Bedford’s Eli Johnson won the wheelchair race, as the junior went 21:42.

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Dana Becker
DANA BECKER

Dana Becker has been a sports writer in Iowa since 2000, writing for The Fort Dodge Messenger, Mason City Globe-Gazette, Cedar Rapids Gazette and others. Dana resides in northcentral Iowa and started as a writer with SB Live Sports in 2022 focused on the state of Iowa. Along with providing coverage of football and wrestling, Dana also spotlights cross country, swimming, basketball, track and field, soccer, tennis, golf, baseball and softball. He began writing for High School on SI in 2023.

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