Regina senior Brennan Bogert eyes the finish line. (Emily Reis photo/Regina H.S.)

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By Cammy Verducci, Regina freshman

IOWA CITY – The Regina cross country program was founded on the late Regina cross country head coach Bob Brown’s motto “nothing but your best.”

He would surely look on with great pride at the effort of this season boys’ and girls’ qualifiers.

This is the 20th consecutive year Iowa City Regina cross country has qualified a team for the state meet. That streak is the second longest in Iowa, with Cedar Falls holding the  top spot.

The Regals takes great pride in overcoming numerous injuries to extend that streak.

Although the boys’ squad enters Saturday’s meet at Fort Dodge unranked, it enters with the confidence of having defeated several ranked teams in order to qualify once again.

“The rankings are only based on numbers and we think this team has a lot of heart,” senior David Crompton said. “We are going to go out and give it our all.”

Crompton’s return from a season-long back issue is cause for great optimism for the Regals. He will run in the second position for Regina after finishing ninth at the 2011 state meet. Crompton will team up with lead runner, senior Brennan Bogert (eighth place finisher in 2011), to spearhead an otherwise young team that has improved as the year has progressed.

On the girls’ side, sophomore Adriana Kammerer has qualified for the second straight year. This year’s squad is one of the youngest in the state with the top five runners set to return next fall.

Coach Chad Swope has extended the excellence that  Brown established in Iowa City. The Running Regals have never finished below seventh at Fort Dodge.

“Nothing but your best” is a motto and much more at Regina.