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Curphy can’t wait to reach new heights at Indian Hills

T-R PHOTO BY ROSS THEDE - East Marshall High School senior Cade Curphy, seated center, recently signed his National Letter of Intent to run track and cross country at Indian Hills Community College starting in the fall. Seated next to Curphy are his parents, Joe and Michelle, and standing behind in support are East Marshall boys cross country coach Trent Taylor, back left, and boys track and field coach Ryan Hull.

LE GRAND — Cade Curphy can’t wait to find out what his future holds as a runner.

Neither can Indian Hills Community College.

Curphy, an East Marshall High School senior, recently signed his National Letter of Intent to run year-round at the next level, committing to the Warriors’ track, indoor track and cross country programs starting in the fall.

Curphy never imagined being a part of three-straight state cross country teams or having any individual success himself, but the Mustang program was already established by the time he broke into the varsity lineup as a freshman. All he had to do was run, and the 6-foot-3 Gilman native has made strides every step of the way.

“The determination and his ability to pay attention to the details — it’s the little things that makes a great runner is what’s going to make him successful,” East Marshall boys track and field coach Ryan Hull said of Curphy. “He’s a great prototype for a college runner. He’s got the frame, he’s got to get stronger and he knows that, and I’m not so sure he’s not still maturing. I think he might be one of those kids that peaks out his junior/senior year of college so I think he’s set up really well.”

Curphy’s cross country career showed improvements at each of three major landmarks: the North Iowa Cedar League meet, districts and state. He began as the 49th-placing runner in the NICL as a freshman and climbed to 24th, 12th and finally 10th in his senior season. At various district sites, Curphy dropped either place or time every year, and he went from 124th at state as a freshman, 89th as a sophomore and 86th as a junior.

Being a senior leader on East Marshall’s first cross country team to miss out on state since 2010 doesn’t plague Curphy’s everyday life, but it will motivate him when the Mustangs run at the Class 2A state-qualifying meet on Thursday in State Center.

“We fought through adversity the entire [cross country] season but we didn’t get to state in the end, but I was still proud of all the work my team put in,” Curphy said, “and nobody quit on the season. Sometimes you just can’t make it to state every year, but I’m not going to sit there and complain about not being able to go four years because most people don’t even get to say they made three.

“I’m definitely going to be thinking about it come districts, that’s definitely going to be in the back of my mind. I’m definitely going all out, I don’t want that to be my last track race.”

Either way it won’t, since Curphy has committed to everything Indian Hills has to offer an avid runner. Ottumwa has become something of a destination for East Marshall harriers as a pair of former Mustangs — Seth Kilborn and Paden Lang — are both freshmen at IHCC.

“They’ve had a pretty strong tradition in cross country and we’ve had at least a few former East Marshall athletes go run cross country and track down there, so I think that connection between previous alumni is kind of what drew [Curphy] down there,” said Hull.

Curphy said Kilborn is a good friend of his, as is former Aplington-Parkersburg runner Mason Tyler, also a freshman runner at Indian Hills.

“Obviously I know some other people who run there, but the first time I visited [Indian Hills] I saw it and I really bought in,” said Curphy. “I was really excited to get going. I visited other places, too, but it just didn’t feel the same. I think they’ve got a good thing going and I think I can really go in and learn and just blossom and that’s what I’m excited for.”

The Indian Hills cross country team had a record-setting day when it finished fourth at the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Region XI meet in October, securing the fastest team average in school history to qualify for nationals. At the NJCAA Cross Country National Championships two weeks later in Garden City, Kan., the Warriors came away with 15th place out of 36 teams.

Indian Hills has qualified for each of the last six national championships, finishing as high as 15th in this past fall, and Curphy hopes to help continue that tradition too.

“Going into my freshman year I didn’t think I was going to be any good at all, but I just kept working every day, I wouldn’t quit and it just kept carrying me on and finding new boundaries and finding new ways to push it,” Curphy said, “and that’s what I plan to keep doing in college.”

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