Photo by Christine Vreeman
They competed against each other once this year. LARPH won at the shorter La Crescent/Hokah Crazy Buffalo run, 35-32. They will probably battle for first at the TRC and the 1A titles. The scores will probably be close. They could even contend with each other for a state title. The paths of ranked boys cross-country teams #3 LARPH and #2 Cotter/Hope Lutheran have crossed often lately. The latest incarnation came at the PEM Jodi Rahman Invite. The results were as close as possible. LARPH topped the Ramblers by one point, 32 to 33. As has been the case, Cotter got its top three runners across the line first. Erik Semling (15:38.7), Ryan Littlefield (15:57), and Kellen Groth (16:11.3) went 1-2-3. Semling and Littlefield are ranked #1 and #3 in state. But LARPH then got their scoring fivesome across before another Rambler. Isaac Rasmussen (16:19.9), Grayson Speltz (16:23.9), Brennan Kunst (16:26.2) and Aaron Ploetz (16:44.6) finished 3-4-5-6. Will Jewson then finished tenth (17:19.4) and non-team scoring runner Hunter Rislov 12th (17:30.4). All were faster than Cotter/HL’s next two, Jonah Alexander in 13th place (17:32.9) and Jonah Hatanpa in 14th place (17:39.9). And thus 4-5-6-7-10 equaled 32 while 1-2-3-13-14 equaled 33. Cotter/HL’s top two and LARPH’s top six runners each ran (much) faster than at last year’s 5,000-meter event held at Plainview’s Piper Hills Golf Course. The Card-Tro-Cane six-some each ran season-best times. LARPH got seven runners in the top 15 as Damien Gossen took 15th (17:42.6). Only three runners in the top 15 were not from Cotter or LARPH. Area teams from LFC and Chatfield took fifth and sixth (of nine complete squads). Ben Peeters took 17th place (17:47.3) to pace the Gophers, Andy Brown 22nd place (18:09.8) to pace the Burros. Sixty-three boys finished the varsity race. A year ago, Cotter/HL topped LARPH 43 to 46. On the girls’ side, Ellen Cullen’s LFC group (72) grabbed the team crown over D-E (92) and PEM (103) with Chatfield (104) in fourth. It was the Burros third first of the year. LARPH took seventh and Kingsland tenth (of 10 complete teams). From the office of redundancy, LFC sophomore Autumn Rakosnik was the champion (19:00) by almost a minute over Cotter/HL’s Emma Hatanpa (20:00.9). It was Rakosnik’s fastest time of the year. She nearly broke the 19-minute mark. LARPH’s Caitlin Bauer took third (20:22.5) for her fifth top five finish. LFC’s Lillyan Kiehne took fifth (20:49.4) in easily her fastest 5,000-meters of the year. Chatfield got two in the top 10 with Adeline Schild in ninth (21:13) and Lexi Kivimagi in tenth (21:13.4). Kingsland’s Reeyin Lanning took 12th place (21:45.3). LFC’s Charity Kinglsey (15th place > 22:11.7) and varsity newcomer Stella Charlebois (23rd > 22:20.4), Chatfield’s Autumn Norsten (16th place > 22:12.4), and LARPH’s Vada Larson (18th place > 22:12.25) also made the top 25. All told, six LFC girls made the top 30. Said squad is ranked #9 in state. Sixty-four total girls finished the 5,000-meter race.
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