Cross Country: LARPH Boys Take Fourth, Rakosnik Ninth at State

The state Class A cross country meet had Section 1A on full display. Primarily included in that were Matt Kingsbury’s LARPH boys and L/FC running standout Autumn Rakosnik. Team Card-Tro-Cane posted their best team finish on the big stage of their six-year run. They took fourth (146), just one spot behind section 1A foe Winona-Cotter (122). Redwood Valley grabbed the team title (86) ahead of Luverne (91). Cotter freshman Erik Semling brought home the individual state title (15:23.5) by topping RV’s William Ahrens (15:35.8) and Kilen Clark (15:49.5). Ramblers Ryan Littlefield (16:02.8) and Kellen Groth (16:03) took sixth and seventh. LARPH got three in the top 40 of a field of 160 runners. Each improved significantly from last year. Trey Hegland led the way by taking 28th place (16:55.3), his second sub-17-mintue 5,000-meter time of the year. The junior took 97th last year (17:52.7). Wyatt Kreidermacher (16:57.7) took 31st place, as he ran a season-best time and first sub-17-minuter. The senior took 82nd last year (17:39.7). Brennan Kunst then finished in 38th place (17:02.1). The sophomore took 52nd last year (17:10.8). Rounding out LARPH’s scoring runners were Grayson Speltz (17:30.3) in 72nd place and Isaac Rasmussen (17:42) in 86th place. Aaron Ploetz (103rd > 17:51.6) and Hunter Rislov (118th > 18:09.5) rounded out the seven-man team. Rasmussen (18:09.3) took 113th last year and Ploetz (18:16.6) 117th place. Speltz and Rislov ran at state a first time. On the girls’ side of things, L/FC’s Autumn Rakosnik and Chatfield’s Lexi Kivimagi competed. Rakosnik made All-State by finishing in the top 10. The freshman (19:29.9) took ninth place overall. And she did not even run her fastest race of the year. She moved up from last year’s also strong 28th placing (19:59.4). Kivimagi (20:24.4) took 54th place in her fourth state meet. She could not keep up with a 31st place a year ago (20:00.9). Kivimagi ran her third fastest time of the year. Cotter/Hope Lutheran’s girls (116) won the state team title over Redwood Valley (121). Section 1A runner-up Rochester-Lourdes (150) took third. Rambler Sonja Semling (18:49.8) took third overall behind champion Audrey Brownell (18:17.2) of Staples-Motley and runner-up Charlotte Meyer of Loyola-Cleveland (18:24). One-hundred-sixty runners started the girls’ race. Each 5,000-meter event was held the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights.