Spirit Lake, 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.

We go to Boys Cross Country now to recognize Spirit Lake.

Spirit Lake had a strong team in the 2023 season, but the improvements made from 2023 to 2024 were leaps and bounds. We saw this almost immediately at the Iowa Great Lakes Meet, with the top 3 runners, Brandon Hughes, Dietrich Dirks, and Jace Hungerford all making their way into the top 5. Okoboji and Spirit Lake loaded up the competition for their combined meet. Forest City ultimately came away with the Class A Team Title, scoring 66 points. The top 5 teams in the final Class A team scores all would be racing in the State Meet as teams in November.

Spirit Lake would score their first Meet win on September 10th at Estherville Lincoln Central’s Cross County Meet. Spirit Lake’s top 3 runners all went sub-17 minutes, placing in the top 4. The last two scorers were each in the top 10 as Spirit Lake cruised to a 1st place finish, scoring only 23 points, 42 points under the 2nd place team Algona.

Spirit Lake would go to Sioux Rapids in back-to-back meets, winning both on September 14th and September 17th.

A big test was the Sioux Center Meet on September 26th. The course was at Dordt University in Sioux Center and many of northwest Iowa’s top teams were attending. Brandon Hughes and Dietrich Dirks both went sup 16:40 again, placing 2nd and 3rd, but the production from the 3 through 5 wasn’t as strong as it had been. Spirit Lake not only took 3rd but finished behind their rivals from the South Side of the Iowa Great Lakes, Okoboji, for the first time this year.

The Algona Cross Country Invite was next, which brought another highly competitive group of teams together only 4 days after the Sioux Center Meet. It once again paired Spirit Lake and Okoboji together, but also through Forest City, Clear Lake, and Charles City in. A hilly course drug times higher, but Hughes and Dirks went 1st and 2nd. They would be broken up significantly from the 3 through 5, as the 3rd place runner didn’t come across the line until 13 spots later. Forest City and Okoboji had a great battle at the top, with Forest City edging out the Pioneers 69-71. Spirit Lake took 3rd at 97.

At the Cherokee Cross Country Meet, Spirit Lake but their top 4 runners within the race’s top 15, including Hughes, Dirks, and Hungerford once again making it a trio beneath 17 minutes and in the top 5. The gap between the #4 and #5 runners was too big though to hold off Sioux Center, who put all of their runners in the top 30, and 4 in the top 15. Spirit Lake took 2nd, 5 points greater than 1st place Sioux Center.

Spirit Lake was expected to dominate the Lakes Conference meet on their home course, and did exactly that, putting their entire top 5 in the top 20 individually. Brandon Hughes flirted with the 16-minute mark that day, running a 16:09.88. They would clear second place Storm Lake by 33 points.

Next was the Class 2A State Qualifier at Landsmeer Golf Club in Orange City, hosted by Unity Christian of Orange City. This was the peak of Spirit Lake’s performance in 2024, winning the State Qualifying meet and edging out Unity Christian for the title by only a point. Brandon Hughes was the State Qualifier Individual Champion, just missing breaking the 16 minute burrier by .36 seconds. Both Dirks and Hungerford went sub 17 as well. Unity Christian had put back-to-back runners in the top 10 at 5th and 6th, with their 3rd in 9th. What made it so close at the top, was some brilliant group running by the Knights 3rd through 5th runners, going 17th, 18th, and 19th. The 3 in the top 5 turned out to be just enough for Spirit Lake to win. If just one runner in their top 5 finished a spot lower, Spirit Lake would’ve lost to Unity Christian via 6th runner tiebreaker, a 13-point swing in favor of the Knights.

Spirit Lake wasn’t able to run with the Knights in Fort Dodge though at the State Meet, taking 9th, 44 points behind Unity in 3rd. Hughes and Dirks did score all-state status though for Spirit Lake. Hughes cracked the 16 minute burrier with a time of 15:55.4 with Dirks going 16:23.8.

Both All-Staters graduated for Spirit Lake, as soon-to-be Junior Jace Hungerford and Senior Carter Trautman will be looking to jump up and fill that void left by Hughes and Dirks in the 2025 season.