JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER When Alivea Weber thinks back on her time playing  volleyball for Freeman Academy/Marion, she knows what she’ll remember best. “This game,” she said.

Elkton-Lake Benton, Class 9AA fourth-ranked team and the second seed in the playoffs, was too much for Freeman/Marion/Freeman Academy on Thursday night, rolling to a 52-14 home victory in the quarterfinal round of the postseason. The Elks improve to 10-0 and will face Parkston in the semifinals; the Trojans upset No. 1-ranked Howard 34-7 Thursday night.

Click here for a link to the Oct. 27 quarterfinal playoff game between Freeman/Marion/Freeman Academy and Elkton-Lake Benton.

Click here for the gallery. 

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Sixth place. Maybe fifth. That’s where head coach Suzanne Koerner thought the Freeman Academy/Marion boys might land at the 2022 State Cross-Country Meet. You can imagine her surprise when the Bearcats finished third.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER For two underclassmen girls from Freeman Public who compete in what can be a big and intimidating world of varsity cross-country, they’re just glad they have each other. “I’d be scared if I ran by myself,” says Peyton McCune, a sophomore. “We would probably cry,” added Rylee Peters, her eighth-grade counterpart. “There was a girl who was balling because she had to run by herself and I was like, ‘Yeah, we’d be balling too.”

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Her 46th place finish may have been further back in the pack than she was hoping for, but Ashton Massey accomplished something on Saturday that is certainly worth celebrating: Her fifth state cross-country meet in as many years.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Long before her children were even a glimmer in her eye, Suzanne Brockmueller became a state cross-country champion — not once, not twice but three times. After finishing second in her freshman season, the Freeman Academy standout won state titles in 1981, 1982 and 1983. It was a time when the girls were running 3,000-meter courses, and one in which female athletes — especially cross-country female athletes — weren’t getting the attention of their male counterparts.

This story is being made available to all members and non-members of The Courier. If you appreciate this kind of community journalism, please consider signing up for the award-winning newspaper.    by Jeremy Waltner | Editor & Publisher

  JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER Given her family’s pedigree for distance running, it didn’t necessarily come as a surprise that Jada Koerner qualified for the State Cross-Country Meet as a seventh grader, nor was it really a surprise that she earned a medal in that 2017 season finale at Hart Ranch in Rapid City with a 23rd-place finish.