Bach, Fopma shine in Class 3A race
FORT DODGE - Myles Bach and Jeremy Fopma are only sophomores at Marion High School, but they had high hopes at the Class 3A state cross country meet in Fort Dodge Saturday.
"We wanted to go 1-2," Fopma declared confidently. "We felt like we had a shot. It was within range."
Bach was credited with fifth place and Fopma was awarded sixth place, even though both 10th graders had identical times of 16 minutes, 33.5 seconds. They were engaged in a terrific photo finish for 4th, 5th and 6th with Nick Peters of Estherville Lincoln Central, who edged them by one-tenth of a second in 16:33.4 for fourth.
You see photo finishes like that in track on occasion, but it's rare for it to happen at the end of a 5 kilometer cross country race when the runners are sore and tired.
Bach and Fopma were aiming for the top, but were proud of themselves for a good showing.
"Yeah, real happy with that," said Bach. "I trained hard all summer. That was good."
