Spirit Lake, Ia (Northwest Iowa Now) – On this edition of the KICD 9-County Area Best Teams of the 2025-2026 Sports Year, we look at the Spirit Lake Boys Cross Country team.

In the 2024 season, Spirit Lake finished 9th in the Class 2A State Meet and would lose All-Staters Brandon Hughes and Dietrich Dirks to graduation. Spirit Lake would bring back the other 3 scorers from that roster though, making for an interesting pre-season outlook in 2025.

Spirit Lake opened up the season at the Spencer XC Invite, and Jace Hungerford promptly made his case as their new hammer, running 16:50.45 to take 3rd. Spirit Lake wouldn’t get another runner in the top 15 competing in a very strong field, but they would take 3rd, clearing strong programs like Okoboji and Algona comfortably.

At their home meet, the Iowa Great Lakes XC Invitational, co-hosted alongside their across the bridge rivals Okoboji, Spirit Lake took 5th with 140 points. This time, Hungerford would finish 2nd at 16:44.71, finishing in front of Storm Lake’s Joel Ramirez-Parra, who had beat Hungerford at Spencer.

After two highly competitive, star-studded meets to begin the year, Spirit Lake cruised at Estherville Lincoln Central, putting 3 in the top 10 with Hungerford clocking 17:18.47 to take 2nd on the Hill heavy Estherville Golf and Country Club. Titus Coates was 7th and Carson Profit took 10th for Spirit Lake, with Noah Clabaugh and Wylee Conway also getting in the top 15 out of the 96-runner field. Spirit Lake won with 41 points, 10 in front of a strong 2nd place Sioux Central team.

Spirit Lake had a big opportunity on September 13th, going to the Heartland Preview, held at Yankton Trail Park in Sioux Falls. The Heartland Preview is a massive regional meet with schools competing from across the upper Midwest. Four different runners in the Boys race went sub 16 minutes in this race. Jace Hungerford ran 16:45.3 to take 22nd out of 251 runners. Carter Trautman also was in the top 100, taking 80th with a time of 17:51.2.

A whopping 237 runners were in the Boys 5k race at Storm Lake. After a busy week with Estherville Lincoln Central and the Heartland Preview, Spirit Lake would back off the gas, taking 6th as a team out of 14 scoring groups. They also wouldn’t field their A-Group at Sheldon, finishing 5th out of 6 varsity teams.

Sioux Center’s XC Invitational is held at the Dordt XC Course, one of the few Cross Country specific courses in this part of Iowa and featured a highly competitive field ranging from 1A all the way up to 4A. Jace Hungerford ran a time of 16:33.55 to take 4th as their lone top 15 finisher, and Spirit Lake continued to fly under the radar for the middle of the season, taking 7th. They would then finish 6th at the Algona Invite, where Spirit Lake saw some much slower times than usual against a strong field.

It was a much smaller field, but a competitive one at the Cherokee XC Meet, where Hungerford took 2nd with his best time up to that point in the year at 16:21.57. Spirit Lake would take 3rd behind the two best 3A schools in Northwest Iowa; Sioux center and MOC-Floyd Valley. That wrapped up the regular season, and then Spirit Lake began to click at the right time.

In the final Lakes Conference Cross Country Championships, held at Storm Lake’s Sunrise Pointe Golf Course, Jace Hungerford took 2nd with a time of 16:54.7, joined in the top 10 by his teammate Carter Trautman in 6th at 17:31. The team would finish 2nd behind Storm Lake, who packed 4 of their top 5 in the top 10, with their 5th placing 11th.

Spirit Lake would compte at Unity Christian of Orange City’s State Qualifying site, which also featured another 2A powerhouse in Forest City. Hungerford threw down a time of 16:28.7 to take 2nd, with Carter Trautman also sub-17 at 16:55.97 to take 11th. Despite no other scorers in the top 20, Wylee Conway, Carson Profit, and Oliver Thompson pack ran well for Spirit Lake, taking 24th, 25th, and 27th, giving them 89 team points, good for a 3rd place finish behind Forest City and Unity Christian, along with a ticket punched as a team to the Class 2A State Cross Country Championships.

At the State Cross Country Meet, hosted by Fort Dodge’s Lakeside Municipal Golf Course, Jace Hungerford earned All-State Status with a 9th place finish, running a time of 16:40.7. Trautman would finish 60th at 17:44.4, and not too far behind him, in 63rd with a time of 17:47.2, was Oliver Thompson. Carson Profit and Wylee Conway were close together, with Profit 87th at 18:07 and Conway just point 8 seconds behind him in 87th out of the 140 runners. Spirit Lake finished 8th as a team with 195 points, only 2 points behind Red Oak in 7th, and clearing 9th place Pella Christian by a comfortable 42 points.

The most exciting part of the 2025 season conclusion for Spirit Lake is they bring back 4 of their top 5 runners, including Hungerford, as Spirit Lake looks for another high finish at the 2026 State Meet.

This has been another look at the best KICD 9-County Area teams of the 2025-2026 Sports Year. We will give a look to Volleyball next.