—Messenger photo by Britt Kudla Humboldt's Quinton Orr crosses the finish line at the Fort Dodge Invitational on Thursday at Lakeside. For more photos, visit CU at messengernews.net

Quinton Orr made a decision that tested him both mentally and physically.

Orr, the Humboldt senior standout runner, opted to take over a week off between races to prepare for Thursday’s Fort Dodge Invitational held on the same course as the upcoming state meet.

The decision paid off for Orr, as he clocked a time of 15:48.4 to finish 16 seconds ahead of West Des Moines Dowling’s Jackson Heidesch. Orr is the top-ranked runner in Class 3A while Heidesch is second in 4A.

“After the Algona meet, I decided to take the rest of the week to get some quality work outs in before we start to taper,” Orr said. “The 10 days off from racing was mentally hard, but it will help me tremendously at state.”

Orr’s teammates continued to compete, racing in Estherville and Eagle Grove. That proved to be more difficult for the defending state runner-up to experience than running by himself.

“Lining up without your teammates is always weird,” he said. “I will say it was way easier to line up by myself than to see my teammates line up and not race myself. I’m super grateful my coaches and teammates let me go and race because it was a great experience to run against 4A teams. It was also super cool to see almost all my teammates on the course cheering me on.

“It was exciting to watch Eric (Wittrock) go win some races and the team still succeed.”

While he has plenty of state experience already after capturing two second place finishes, Orr knows this will only help him in the long run.

“It was super awesome to run the state course. It’s a great experience to have prior to state because you can play around with some tactics and learn some of the strategies of the course,” Orr said. “It had a super different feel than the state meet but was super fun to go run that course.

“During the race I knew I could go out and throw down a good time but most importantly just go race. It was a competitive field and I knew it was going to take a good race to win. The wind made the conditions a bit hard but everyone had to deal with it and I was going to make my moves there. I broke away about a mile in when we turned into the wind. Running into the wind is tough and I knew that’s when I was going to separate from the field. With about 1,000 left I felt great and had a decent gap and was pretty confident that I could finish hard.”

Humboldt will now prepare to earn a third consecutive North Central Conference title and gear up for the state-qualifying meet.

“A three-peat has only been done one other time in our school’s history,” Orr said. “The state-qualifying meet is always fun and a lot on the line.

“Hopefully we can make it to state but as a team and myself, we are taking it one race at a time and making the most of our opportunities and enjoying each moment.”

The only other area team in action was Manson Northwest Webster.

On the girls side of the event, the Cougars finished eighth overall as senior Maddie Moline placed 19th. Moline, coming off a victory this past Tuesday night in Lake City, clocked a time of 20:30.

Paige Condon was 43rd overall in 22:20 with Preslie Oswald earning 44th. Abi Shannon was 61st, Amber Aljets 71st, Kelsey Widlund 72nd and Miranda Pohlman 75th.

The MNW boys finished 11th overall as Lane Moline was 55th in 19:45. Quinn Lachelt placed 65th, Thade Lachelt 68th, Cael Oswald 71st, Korbin Jensen 73rd, Kaleb Calmer 76th and Owen Eldridge 77th.