Van-Far was well-represented on Saturday at the Class 1 state cross country meet.

The school record book was also well-covered as Slade Keller and Garrett Hopke each finished in the top 30 in the boys race to medal to lead Van-Far’s first state qualifying team and Khloe Wallace was 30th in the girls race to be all-state. Keller broke his own school record with a 10th-place time of 17:12.3, Hopke was 29th with a time of 17:38 for his first state medal in three tries and Wallace had a time of 21:49 in her first state appearance.

Head coach Kris Cross said this year has been “phenomenal” as all of the program’s runners qualified for state after many years of sending one or two runners. Not only that, Wallace became the school’s first girls medalist since Brooke-lyn Forman in 2023, and Keller and Hopke were the first Van-Far boys to reach the podium since Lathyn McMorris in 2017. Cross said it all started because more boys came out to run this season after not having a full boys team since about six years ago.

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“They know they have to count on each other so it makes them push themselves a little harder,” Cross said. “It’s not just running for themselves, but they have a team that’s counting on them to do what they need to do.”

Keller said he and the team have “come a long way this season.” He posted a time of more than 20 minutes early in the season and then some 18-minute times before starting to really make progress. 

While he also credited his Christian faith, the times started to go down after Keller started to push toward Hopke and arrived at a point they were both breaking the school record. Keller had the record of 17:14 going into the state meet.

“I realized throughout the races I was inching closer to Garrett,” Keller said. “I decided to start pushing with him throughout the season. At practice, I pushed myself as hard as I could, and it all paid off in the end.”

Cross said Keller just missed qualifying for state last year with a 33rd-place finish at districts. She noticed Keller became more confident when he finished a race close behind Hopke. He then emerged as an all-conference nod along with Hopke and another leader for the team Saturday that included Jaydon Hug-Hernandez (86th), Brady Puls (104th), Cristian Sastre (127th) and Tyler Carlyle (139th).

“The two of them have worked really hard together in practice,” Cross said. “It has been great for the team to have those two up there leading the pack. They have done an incredible job of being leaders on the team.”

Hopke was Van-Far’s only boy at state each of the last two years and having a team for the first gave him “something to strive for.” He said he and Keller, in particular, can try to each finish in the top five at state next year.

“He always has a little extra energy at the end,” Hopke said. “When you got someone next to you, you can’t stop. You’ve got to tell your legs to keep moving even though you feel like you’re going to fall down at any moment.”

As for who will finish ahead of the other, Hopke is pushing for the top spot on the team.

“Slade will probably beat me again next year, but we’ll see,” Hopke said

Keller said the team doesn’t lose anybody except Chilean foreign exchange student Sastre, who had an injury but returned to be a positive presence on the team. He said Hug-Hernandez returned to the team after being only track and field last year, and he convinced his friend Puhls to run after Keller had a good experience when he returned to cross country as sophomore last year.

Cross said Wallace has overcome much in her career from sickness that prevented her from finishing at districts last year to an injury that cost her a couple weeks this year. She is happy Wallace is healthy this year and even more so she is finding success.

“To come from last year not making through the district meet to be all-state this year is a huge thing for her,” Cross said. “She is excited to come back next year.”

Cross said she finally convinced freshman Kylee Gibson to be a dual athlete with cross country and softball and thought she did well with a 98th-place time of 24:09, moving into the top 100 in the race.

Wallace said the injury kept her from running long enough to miss a couple meets. She wasn’t where she wanted to be, especially since her goal was to make it to state, but she said she had a strong mindset all the way to the point she initially thought she just missed medaling.

“Coming through the finish line, I thought I was 31st so I was pretty upset with myself,” Wallace said. “Once I saw the board, I was very happy.”

Wallace had faster splits on the last two 1,000 meters than at the 3,000-meter mark as she said she tries to have “a strong kick at the end.” She said has had stronger kicks in the past and has a sense when she needs to speed up during a race.

Having so much support is helpful to Wallace, and she said it was a fun week for the program.

“We got to do a walkthrough at school (last Friday),” Wallace said. “It was so fun having every single person make it state, and I’m just grateful for the opportunity.”