The Section 1A cross country meet presented a lot of deja-vu from recent memory. LARPH’s boys, LFC’s Autumn Rakosnik, and Chatfield’s Lexi Kivimagi all ran their way back to state, repeating last year. And deja-vu particularly centered around Matt Kingsbury’s Card-Tro-Canes. Like last year, LARPH topped nearest foe Cotter/Hope Lutheran. Like last year, it was close. LARPH slipped past the Ramblers 50 to 54 with St. Charles (128) taking a distant third. A year ago, LARPH topped Cotter/HL 51 to 57. Like the TRC Meet held a week prior, Cotter had the first three across the line, between the two teams, but LARPH the next six. Freshman Erik Semling (15:54.7) won his second straight 1A meet title. Rambler teammates Ryan Littlefield (16:28.1) and Kellen Groth (16:44.4) took second and third, followed by Ivan Daood (16:57.3) of St. Charles. But then the Card-Tro-Cane fellas starting rolling in. Junior Trey Hegland (17:01.5) took fifth, a major improvement from 30th last year (18:38.28). Brennan Kunst (17:05.8) took seventh, deja-vu from last year (17:34.24). Wyatt Kreidermacher (17:22.6) and Aaron Ploetz (17:28.5) took 11th and 12th. Ploetz moved up from 31st place a year ago. Rounding out LARPH’s scoring runners, Grayson Speltz (17:29.3) took 15th. Non-scoring teammate Isaac Rasmussen (16th > 17:35.8) gave the Card-Tro-Canes six in the top 16. Only Cotter had three finish so high. The Ramblers other two scoring runners were Jonah Hatanpa (23rd > 18:01.1) and Logan Granseth (25th > 18:04.8). Sandwiched between was LARPH’s Hunter Rislov (24th > 18:01.8). Of LARPH’s seven runners, only Rislov ran a season-best time. Hegland and Speltz ran their second fastest. It is the team’s sixth straight state qualification, and their second 1A Meet title. Making state individually were SC’s Daood, RAACHE’s Luke Dircks (6th place), PI’s Vaughn Anderson (8th place), Lake City’s Conrad Seydel Jr. (9th place), Pacelli’s Zemecha McManus (10th place), and St. Charles’ Eddie Burlingame (13th place). Elsewhere, LFC’s top runner was Riley Grant (22nd > 17:58.9) while teammate Andy Brown (33rd > 18:28.9) finished top 35. GMLOS’ top runner was Carter Glynn (31st > 18:22.1). Chatfield’s top runner was Maddex Lanning (42nd > 18:43.6). LFC (246) as a team took eighth, Chatfield (249) ninth, and GMLOS (401) 15th of 20 complete squads. Kingsland was incomplete with one runner. On the girls’ side, Cotter/Hope Lutheran senior Sonja Semling (19:06.5) got redemption for last year’s collapse by topping LFC’s Autumn Rakosnik (19:32.2) for the individual title. Rakosnik repeated in taking second, shaving much time off her pace a year ago (19:56.3). She earned her second straight state berth. The defending 1A champ, Chatfield’s Lexi Kivimagi, fell back a bit from last year’s individual title (19:43.34). The sophomore took eighth overall (20:27.4), but she finished as the fifth individual state qualifier (of six). She made state a fourth time. Cotter/HL (47) topped Rochester-Lourdes (62) for the team title. Each qualified for state. Lourdes’ Anna Peikert (19:39.6) and Olivia Timbers (20:09.8) took third and fifth. Ramblers’ Isabelle Katwa (19:41.4) and Brooklyn Staudacher (20:31.9) took fourth and tenth to join Semling in the top 10. LFC (134) took third place. Burros Lillyan Kiehne (20th > 21:10.7), Eliza Cullen (34th > 21:57.4), Grace Kingsley (39th > 22:15.3), and Charity Kingsley (43rd > 22:27.6) cracked the top 45. Chatfield’s Charlotte Oeltjen (26th > 21:43.3) and Adeline Schild (45th > 22:32.3) joined Kivimagi in doing the same thing. LARPH’s Caitlin Bauer (20:39.8) just missed state by one spot with her 12th place finish. Teammate Vada Larson (22:03.2) took 36th place. Kylie Meyer (30th > 21:45.2) led Kingsland. Sadie Bustad (40th > 22:17.2) led GMLOS. Chatfield (200) took eighth place, GMLOS (308) 10th, and Kingsland (406) 17th of 19 complete teams. Joining Rakosnik and Kivimagi in earning individual state berths were La Crescent/Hokah’s Hope Docan-Morgan (6th place), Lake City’s Olivia Yotter (7th place), PI’s Ashley Pederson (9th place), and Blooming Prairie’s Gloria Hernandez (11th place). One hundred thirty-nine boys and girls participated in the 5,000-meter run on a 50-plus degree day at Rochester’s Northern Hills Golf Course. LARPH’s Matt Kingsbury and LFC’s Ellen Cullen notably earned boys and girls 1A Coaches of the Year awards.
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