2A few of the Central Boys & Girls team extended their season by running at the Nike  Heartland Regional meet in Sioux Falls. There are several different divisions from "Rising Stars (freshman & Sophomores), Open Division ,and Championship Division." The race is sponsored by Nike, and the top two teams from each championship race advance.  The top five individuals (as did Karly Ackley for GFC 2016), not on advancing teams also go on to Portland, Oregon, for the National Championship race.  The Heartland region is made up of the following states: IA - KS - MN - NE - ND - SD - WI.  The championship division you have to selected in, they took the top 27 teams that applied to run in that race.

The day started out early for us with Ryan, Joe, and Quinn running in the Rising Stars division.  There were 254 boys in the race and Ryan crossed the finish line first for the boys in 16:58, placing 37th.  Joe ran a new PR in 17:50, earning 106th place.  Our youngest runner, Quinn, 7th grader, was not intimidated by the older boys and ran 18:20, just a few seconds off his PR, and placed 143rd.

The girls hung out in the hotel, since their race was much later in the day.  But they definitely showed up and ran well, placing 12th overall, and was the first North Dakota team.   Alexis busted out a huge PR of 17:58, being just the second Central girl to break 18 mins, and placed 20th place.  That earned her 3rd All-Heartland team honors by placing in the top 21.  The girls quickly kept crossing the line  Rachel 18:24 (45th), Mikayla 18:26 (new PR, 50th), Lauren 19:35 (153rd), Silje 20:26 (217th), Sophia 21:00 (231st), and Nora 21:03 (new PR, 233rd).  It was the first time Central placed 3 girls in the top 50.  The girls really finished the 2018 season well with several new PRs, and everyone one of them within a few seconds of their season PR!