Sioux Rapids, Ia (Northwest Iowa Now) – With the 2024-2025 Iowa High School Sports season winding down, we continue our series of the best teams from the past sports year in the KICD 9-County Area.

The Sioux Central Girls Cross Country team put together a really fun season with some great battles throughout.

A pretty competitive schedule began with the Iowa Great Lakes XC Invitational. The Rebels were placed in Class B, and Linnea Bloom started her Senior season out right, taking 2nd with a time of 21:44.37. Nora Christian, Marley Madsen, and Karina Bloom jointed her in the top 10. Those finishes helped Sioux Central undercut 2nd Place West Bend-Mallard by 17 points and pick up the win.

Next up was the ELC meet, which featured a significant portion of 3A schools. The Rebels had to take their lumps at this meet, taking 6th with a short-handed lineup, but still put two runners in the top 10 with Nora Christian 5th and Karina Bloom 10th.

Sioux Central hosted back-to-back home meets, the Chris Smith Invitational on September 14th and September 17th. Sioux Central took 3rd at the first meet and won the 2nd meet. The first one was the more competitive Meet won by Alta-Aurelia. The Rebels put Marley Madsen in the top 10 for that one. Linnea Bloom came back for the 2nd meet, taking 5th with Nora Christian 10th.

At this point Sioux Central was showing off their depth with 3 different lead runners so far in the season. Sioux Central picked up a win at the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn meet as well to make it back-to-back. After a couple meets taking 4th and 2nd, It was time for the home stretch of the season, and the Rebels were ready to peak at the right time.

That started off in the Twin Lakes Conference Championship at the Iowa Lakes Community College Disc Golf Course in Emmetsburg.

The race for the TLC Girls Conference Title was a fantastic one. Alta-Aurelia’s Nora Peterson crossed the line in 1st. Sioux Central then would bring Linnea Bloom across the line in 5th, only 3 seconds in front of the Warriors’ Hayden Berkland. The Rebels got Marley Madsen 7th, 2 seconds in front of Alta-Aurelia’s Breyer Anderson. Where the Rebels really won it was in the 9-10 spots with Nora Christian at 21:23.9, and Karina Bloom at 22:24.6. That tied the team score between the two at 42. Violet Sangwin got within Alta-Aurelia’s top 5 to give Sioux Central the win in the 6th runner tiebreaker, giving the Rebels a Twin Lakes Conference Championship.

The State Qualifier for Class 1A was at one of the top courses in Northwest Iowa, Ridge View. The battle in the top 3 was a good one, highlighted by Alta-Aurelia and Sioux Central going to war again. This time, Sioux Central fell short by 2 points. The 2nd place finish did qualify the Rebels for the State Meet as a team though.

Sioux Central and Alta-Aurelia once again had a close battle, but it was Sioux Central coming out on top at the State Meet. The Rebels were 6th with 181 points, 11 points in front of their Conference rivals. Linnea Bloom clocked 20:07.1, placing 26th for Sioux Central. Marley Madsen was also in the top 50 at 47th, running 20:34.5.

This has been another Team of the Year Profile as we close down the 2024-2025 High School Sports Season in the KICD 9-County Area. Tomorrow, we will pick a Football Team.