State cross county trophy is sweet success for one Decorah HS student

The Decorah Viking girls cross country team--led by Kelly Minear--brings home the State Championship trophy. (Photo by Clara Knudson)

Last year was somewhat of a challenge for Decorah High School girls cross country runner Kelly Minear.  She felt sluggish while running and wondered about the cause, until doctors determined she had an iron deficiency.

Medication helped her recover.  A summer spent training hard also helped.  So when Minear and the rest of the Viking girls cross country team headed to the weekend's State Meet at Fort Dodge, her outlook had improved.

Minear tells decorahnews.com she ran well, but not her best race at the State Meet.  But she would soon learn some very good news--the Vikings had won the State Championship--and she played a big role in that.

The first five runners for both Decorah and MOC-Floyd Valley had both earned 108 points.  That meant the state title would be determined by both school's #6 runners--and that meant Kelly for the Vikings.

Fortunately, she had beaten not only MOC-Floyd Valley's #6 runner, but its #5 and #4 runners as well.  In fact, the Vikings' #7 runner, Maria McDonough, had also beaten MOC-Floyd Valley's #6 runner.

"It felt really good to win," Kelly tells decorahnews.com.  When the team returned to Decorah on Saturday evening and carried the state championship trophy into the DHS Auditorium, Minear was asked to carry the trophy.