—Messenger photo by Britt Kudla Winterset players celebrate after beating Dallas Center-Grimes 3-1 on Thursday night in the Class 4A state championship game. For more photos, visit CU at messengernews.net

Winterset senior Bridget Stover thought over and over again for the past year what winning a state championship would feel like.

On Thursday night under the bright lights of Rogers Park, Stover got to experience it for real.

Stover caught the final out on a strikeout from classmate Thea Banning as the top-ranked Huskies conquered Dallas Center-Grimes, 3-1, to claim the Class 4A title.

“All that hard work paid off,” said Stover moments after embracing with her grandmother. “Last year, we didn’t get the job done. But we did it. We did it for our fans, our families, our community and our coach (Steve Corkrean).

“There is no better feeling than knowing we are going to wake up (Friday) as state champions.”

Winterset (37-4 overall) won the fourth state title in program history, all coming under Corkrean, who owns a career record of 677-226 at the school. The Huskies also took gold in 2020, ’17 and ’08.

“We wanted to do this for him because he works so hard for us,” Stover said. “We’ve been dreaming about this moment.”

Banning picked up her 30th win of the season, striking out four with one walk. Stover was 2-for-3, while Neela Applegate blasted what would be the game-winning runs with a two-run homer in the fifth.

Jena Young, a junior who has already committed to the University of Iowa, was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored.

For Dallas Center-Grimes (35-7), Summer Campbell had a triple, Macee Reiling scored the lone run and Olivia Huston had an RBI with two hits.

After Winterset took a 1-0 lead in the third on an RBI by Riley Kious that plated Young, the Mustangs answered back with a tying run in the fourth courtesy of a Huston hit.

“We know we are going to get the best effort of each and every team we play,” Stover said. “As the No. 1 ranked team, it is the Super Bowl for our opponent every night, so we have to come ready to play.”

The Huskies show that resolve in the fifth, as Young singled and was driven home by a line-drive homer from Applegate.

Winterset finished the year winning 23 consecutive games, a run that included victories over 5A runner-up Fort Dodge, 5A fourth place finisher West Des Moines Valley and state qualifiers Williamsburg, Carlisle, Waukee, Indianola, Ballard and Adel-ADM.

WINTERSET 3, DALLAS CENTER-GRIMES 1

Dallas Center-Grimes 000 100 0 — 1 6 0

Winterset 001 020 x — 3 8 1

WP–Thea Banning (30-3, 7 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 4 K, 1 BB). LP–Aubrey Johansen (17-3, 6 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 1 K, 1 BB).

HR–W: Neela Applegate. 3B–DCG: Summer Campbell. 2B–DCG: Olivia Huston; W: Jena Young. RBI–DCG: Olivia Huston; W: Riley Kious, Neela Applegate (2).