Larabee Granddaughter Qualifies For Iowa State CC Meet

The granddaughter of a Neligh couple will compete in the Iowa State Cross Country Meet this weekend.

Rachel Larabee, daughter of Phillip and Laura Larabee of Monticello, Iowa and granddaughter of Norman and Lorideen Larabee of Neligh, will run with her Monticello High School Girls Cross Country Team in an effort for the Team to repeat at Iowa Class 2A Girls State Champions at the State Cross Country Meet in Fort Dodge, IA on Saturday, Oct. 31.

Rachel is a sophomore at Monticello High School and her team of five sophomores, a freshman and a senior qualified as a team when they won their district meet in Monticello, IA on October 22. There were eight points separating the 1st and 3rd place teams.  The district included the #1, #3 and #4 Class 2A ranked girls teams. Rachel finished the race in 16th place individually.

The Monticello High School Girl's team has been ranked #1 in Class 2A for the entire season. They are contenders to repeat as State Class 2A Champions. The team has also been ranked as high as 17th via a National High School Cross Country Poll for schools with a student population of 699 and under.  The team won the Class 2A 2014 State Championship running five freshman, a junior and a senior.  Rachel finished 27th individually at the 2014 State meet. The team broke the 100 minute mark when the top five girls on the team ran a team total of 99 minutes 28 seconds at a recent cross country meet. Larabee has run as high as fourth on her team this year with her best time being 20 minutes 21 seconds on the 5K course.

She is looking to run cross country and track in college, and her future plans are to study biology in college.

Her dad, Phil, is a graduate of Neligh-Oakdale Public Schools (1983) and University of Nebraska-Lincoln (1987) who is employed in banking.  Her mom, Laura, is a graduate of East Central High School, Miles, IA (1985), Clinton Community College, Clinton, IA (1987) and Cornell College, Mt Vernon, IA (1989). Laura also taught Art from 1989 to 1991 for Neligh-Oakdale Public School. Today she manages her family's apple orchard and is a professional artist.