Top Nine Boys Teams At The Nike Heartland Regional

Sioux Falls Lincoln (SD)

Only two South Dakota boys teams have ever qualified for NXN, and one of those teams is Sioux Falls Lincoln back in 2014. And if their performance at the State Championships is any indication, they could very well go back. At that meet, Lincoln put on a show by placing all seven runners in the top eleven, and scored a State Meet record-low score of 22 points (the old record of 23 points had stood for 44 years), averaging a time of 16:03 with a 44-second spread. The dazzling performance came on the heels of a grueling schedule in which the Patriots saw some of the Heartland's best teams in every race. They did not win many of those matchups, but the constant challenge of seeing top competition apparently prepared them impeccably to put a beatdown on in-state competition. Three weeks will have passed since that performance, however, so Lincoln certainly has their work cut out for them trying to hold onto that peak, but they'll also have an advantage by having the host course virtually in their back yard (Yankton Trail Park is less than two miles from their school).