Cross Country

October 31, 2020

While the MSHSL did not hold a state meet this year due to COVID, some retired cross country coaches organized the TCRC XC Showcase to give the top cross country runners from around the state a chance to compete against each other. Our own Isak was invited to participate, based on his section meet result.

Isak finished 8th in his pod of individual qualifiers not running with their teams, and he finished 18th overall in the merged results. His time of 17:13.8 was his second best time this season, behind only his section finish.

You can see complete merged results for the boys small class at Wayzata Results.

October 13, 2020

This was a section meet in two acts.

Our girls ran in the morning, enjoying crisp autumn weather but also dealing with blustery winds. Margo ran with the 2nd Breck runner for most of the race, sprinting past her over the last part of the race. She finished 9th overall. Cara ran with another Breck runner for much of the way, but she also kicked hard to finish ahead of her competition. Izzy, running her last high school cross country race, ran one of her best races of the season, finishing strong. And she had to because Teagan was just a few seconds behind her, earning a personal best time. Abigail ran close to her personal best time, set on a flat course at Blake. Sophia, running on legs that were feeling much better after a week of rest, improved her best time on this course from last year.

The girls team, which had been seeded 8th, improved on that, finishing in 7th place in the merged results.

Our boys team ran in the afternoon, enjoying slightly warmer temperatures, but also dealing with the same strong winds. Isak ran with the top Holy Family runner, staying with him until the last hill, when he moved ahead. He finished with a strong kick to win our pod. He finished 3rd overall. Ben moved up steadily the second half of the race, finishing with a good surge to improve his personal best time. Peter, running in his final high school cross country race, started pretty fast, and hung on for his best time of the season. Not bad for someone who broke his ankle in June! Evan started out with Ben, but had some trouble, hanging on to finish as our 4th runner. Trevor ran close to his personal best time and finished well. Eddie also finished well, improving on his best time on this course from last year. Liam also had some trouble during the race, but hung on to close things out for the boys.

The boys team, which had also been seeded 8th, finished in 6th place in the merged results.

Since there is no state meet this year, this section meet marks the end of our season. Thanks to your ability to adapt to many new ways of doing things, your willingness to take responsibility for your own training when you were not on campus, and all your hard work over the summer and during our season, you ran some excellent races today. Congratulations on completing a memorable season!

Results for the girls and boys races can be found at Gopher State Events.

And if you’ve never seen our girls do their pre-race routine, check out this video:

October 12, 2020

On a beautiful fall afternoon, our non-varsity runners had one last chance to test themselves in a 2400 meter time trial.

Henry led from start to finish. Josh and Leo ran together the entire race, with Josh kicking past Leo over the last 100 meters. Josh ran 10 seconds faster than he did in the virtual meet over the same course. Megan finished only a few seconds behind those boys to lead our two girls. She ran almost 30 seconds faster than she did at the virtual meet a month ago.

Carter and Connor ran close together most of the way, with Carter sprinting ahead at the end. Both Carter and Connor ran much faster than they did over the same course in the virtual meet. Julia finished just ahead of Andrew, running almost a minute faster than she did in the virtual meet! Andrew was slowed by a sore back from hockey.

Ryan wrapped things up for our non-varsity runners.

Almost everyone who had run over this course during the virtual meet a month ago improved on that time. Some of you improved a lot. This is a credit to the work you’ve put in over the course of the season. This ends your season for this year. But hopefully you can make more progress in future seasons!

You can see the results of the non-varsity time trial here.

October 6, 2020

It felt like August but you raced like October at the IMAC Championship.

Our varsity boys started things off. It was already getting hot with a stiff wind as well. Isak ran for a short while with the top Breck runner, but he settled in with the 2nd and 3rd Breck runners. He led them through the second half of the race and finished well to earn 2nd in our race, and 4th in the merged results. Isak earned all conference honors for his efforts.

Peter, Evan, and Ben stuck together for most of the race, working against the top Providence runner and the 4th Breck runner. They finished within a few seconds of each other. Liam, Eddie, and Trevor also ran together for most of the race. Liam made a late move, but Eddie surged to finished as our 5th runner, with Liam finishing close behind, and with Trevor sprinting past Breck’s 5th runner.

Our varsity girls toed the line as the temperatures rose into the high 70s. Margo ran with the top Providence runner and the 2nd Breck runner. She surged up the big last hill to separate from them to finish 2nd in our race and 7th in the merged results. Margo earned all conference honors for her work.

Cara ran much of the race alone, but ran well to finish 7th in our race and  20th in the merged results. Izzy, Teagan, and Abigail ran together much of the race, competing against a couple of Providence runners. Izzy pushed hard over the last mile, and Teagan stuck not too far back, to separate from those runners. Abigail held on for a course best time.

I was pleased to see some good racing today. The weather and the course made fast times impossible. But you ran in groups and ran with the runners from Breck and Providence that you were targeting. If you bring that effort and focus to our section races next week, you will do well!

Results are available at Gopher State Events.

September 26, 2020

This morning, you had a dual meet on a course with more twists and turns than a Stephen King novel. Fortunately, the only bears on the course were the Blake runners.

Our boys varsity was first up. Isak chased the top Blake runners for most of the race, finishing 3rd with his second best ever time. Peter started fast and hung on to finish 5th. His time this morning was about 90 seconds faster than his previous meet two weeks ago. Ben ran well the entire race, closing on Peter during the latter stages of the race. He improved his personal best time by 12 seconds. Evan’s breakfast was giving him a little trouble during the race, but he still managed to finish 9th and improve his time from two weeks ago by almost 30 seconds. Trevor wound up as our 5th runner. He improved his personal best by almost a minute! Eddie, in just his second varsity race, improved his personal best by about 40 seconds. Liam also has some trouble with his breakfast choices, and had to stop to get a divorce from his breakfast. He did persist and finished the race.

Next up was our girls varsity. After leading the first part of the race, Margo chased the top girls from Blake, ultimately finishing 4th. Cara started out further back, but made a strong move in the second half of the race, finishing in 5th place, and running just 2 seconds behind her personal best time. Izzy also surged in the latter part of the race, finishing 9th. Teagan, running in her first varsity race, moved up significantly during the second half of the race, finishing just 6 seconds behind Izzy. Abigail was our 5th runner, closing out the scoring for our team. She improved her personal best by 90 seconds. Sophia kept a steady quickish pace the entire race. It paid off, as she improved her personal best time by over a minute!

In this small meet format, with just two teams, I thought you did well to stick with groups of the Blake runners as long as you could. Even if you did fall back later in the race, this helped you run better times. Next up, in just ten days, is our conference championship. We will have a shot at Breck and Providence Academy.

You can see the results for our runners here.

September 25, 2020

On a warm, humid afternoon, ten of our JV runners, including many middle school runners, raced well.

Our boys started things off. Leo, running in his first cross country race, ran well to finish in 3rd place overall. Joey finished with a strong kick to earn 5th place overall, against mostly high school competition! Henry S., wearing his signature baseball cap (now a very sweaty baseball cap), ran very well to improve his personal best by over 30 seconds! Sam, running his first 5000 meter cross country race, was only a few seconds behind Henry S.

Andrew was surprised, and perhaps pleased, that many of his friends dropped by to cheer him on. Very loudly. They even tried to run alongside him, but they couldn’t keep up with him. Zain finished a few seconds behind Andrew, and was probably wondering what all the fuss was about. Noah finished with a good kick. And Eilam ran his second 5000 meter race of the season.

Later, our two Amy’s did the girls race. After tiring out their coach by walking the course with him, they raced 5000 meters. For the younger Amy, this was her first cross country race, after she did her warmup on the swing on the new playground. For the older Amy, this was her second time on this course, and this time she did not take any wrong turns and finished with a good kick.

It was a challenging day to race, and you did well to overcome the conditions!

(Click to see the full size images)

September 15, 2020

It was not an ideal day to race cross country. But you ran very well!

Eddie started fast and kept going fast, maintaining a steady 6:20-ish pace for the entire race. Joey also ran a strong steady pace, averaging 7:00 pace. Josh was never far behind Joey and also ran a steady pace. This was his first cross country race. Sam, in his first cross country race, did very well.

Ryan held off the hard charging Carter and Connor. All three ran very competitively. This was the first cross country race for all three of them. Boyd finished things for our middle school boys. He started very fast and held on pretty well.

Teagan was our top girl, our 5th overall finisher. She averaged 7:20 pace the entire way, keeping a fairly even pace after a quick first loop. Megan was not far behind, in her first cross country race. Julia ran a steady pace the entire way. She’s only been on the team about a week, and this was only the second time she’s been with the team!

You can see the times for our runners here and overall results for all participating teams here.

September 11, 2020

The weather was cloudy with a little drizzle at times. But our girls were shining bright.

Margo led our varsity girls. She was dealing with some painful hip flexors, but after some strength and stretching, she decided to race. She ran with the top SPA girls for 2 miles, but then the hip flexor got painful and she wisely backed off. She still managed to finish 4th.

Cara ran very well to take almost a minute off her best time on this course. Izzy was not far behind, with a time not that far off her time at last year’s IMAC Championship near the end of the season on this course. Abigail, running her first varsity race, knocked almost 5 minutes off her previous personal best time! If she does that again, Margo will be looking over her shoulder. Sophia wrapped things up for our varsity girls. In this small field, she wound up running alone, but still managed to take over a minute off her previous personal best time.

Later in the afternoon, Amy made her way to Battle Creek to run in the junior varsity race. She had never run this course, but the girls from Minnehaha were nice enough to show her the way. Amy started out cautiously, but turned it up a notch during the second half of the race. Showing some determination, she finished strongly.

All the times (including the varsity winner) were on the slower side. This was everyone’s first race. And if you think about previous years, we would be running our first race on Saturday. So these are early days. Running in a meet with just three teams is also a very different experience, with many gaps forming, leaving runners running alone, which is much harder.

With more interval workouts (did I mention that we will be doing 600s on Monday?) and a few more races, you will be sharp and ready to race your best times.

You can see the results for our girls here.

September 10, 2020

You ran well in your first cross country meet in this new normal world.

Isak played cat and mouse with the top runner from SPA. In the end, the cat won. And the cat was running in hiking shoes. Really. Isak promises me he will wear his spikes next time. Or at least running shoes.

Ben stuck with the Minnehaha runners right to the end. He was not able to catch that group, but he did run a personal best time on a course that is significantly more challenging than the section course where he set his previous person best.

Evan was next up, also running without spikes, but at least wearing real running shoes. Liam, running just a few seconds off his personal best time, was our next runner. Peter wrapped up our scoring five, running well off his personal best. But we can cut him some slack, since he only got the boot off his previously broken ankle about a month ago!

Trevor ran well and was smiling the entire race. This was not only his first race as a varsity runner, but his first cross country race. An impressive debut!  Noah, promoted to the varsity finished things up for us. In this much smaller than normal field, he was left running alone, which is always much harder.

Next, our junior varsity runners headed bravely to Battle Creek.  After learning the course on the fly, it was race time.   Eddie led the way, not going out too fast and running a smart, patient race. Joey ran a personal best, moving up throughout the race to finish just ahead of our new runner from Gentry, Andrew, making a strong debut in his first cross country meet. Zain finished just a few seconds further back, running his personal best. Henry S. overcame a side cramp and added his own personal best time, and Eilam, though he wasn’t feeling his best, persevered and finished, wrapping things up for our junior varsity boys.  Thank you to the JV boys for diligently helping to pick up the cones after the race.

You did very well adapting to the new normal, wearing masks, distancing on the starting line, sticking to a tight schedule so our junior varsity runners could get to the second meet on time, and everything else. While some of your times may have been disappointing, those will improve as we do more work in the coming weeks.

If you do not have spikes, visit Run N Fun and pick up a pair. If you did not wear your spikes, bring them to our next interval workout and put a little time in wearing them to get acclimated. They will make a huge difference.

Times for our runners can be found here.