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The drought was 12 years. Was is the key word in that sentence.

After using the regular season as a warm-up, the North Branch girls cross country team won the Rum River conference cross country meet for the first time since 1991 last Thursday, finishing 31 points ahead of Princeton who finished second. It was the girls fifth total conference title.

“We knew it would be between us and Princeton,” said Ward Gilkerson, North Branch head cross country coach. “The girls ran very well. I was really happy with our balance, finishing with a second, sixth and eighth. You get that many kids in the top 10 and you’re going to score some points.”

And they did just that. The second place finish came from seventh-grader Haley Hasleiet. Hasleiet, who just started competing with the varsity a few weeks ago, finished 58 seconds behind Brenna Carey of Big Lake, and 20 seconds ahead of Milaca’s Sara Hannenburg who placed third overall.

“She’s been just superb,” mentioned Gilkerson. “She’s done really well. I knew she would be in the top 10 for sure, we knew she would be in the mix. Second is great.”

Hasleiet was joined in the top 10 by Rachel Souther and Amanda Peterson. Souther crossed the finish line in sixth place while Peterson followed in eighth place. Hasleiet, Souther, Peterson, and Miranda Charley (14) were all selected all-conference (top 15 make all-conference).

As for the rest of the best, Tiffany Peterson and Aileen Shanley ran themselves onto the all-conference honorable mention team, finishing 17 and 20 respectively. Throw in Maggie Kriz at 32, and all seven North Branch runners completed the course in under 18 minutes.

“I really have to give a huge amount of credit to our middle school coach Doniven Ahlm,” replied Gilkerson. “That’s where our program has started it’s way up. That has really helped the program getting a coach at the middle school.”

Don’t believe him? Consider this, of the seven Viking runners, not one is older than a sophomore. Yes, one down and what looks like many more to go.

North Branch boys run second behind Chisago Lakes

There was nothing surprising about it. Gilkerson said before the boys conference meet that Chisago Lakes was the team to beat- they won it. He said the only way Chisago would lose was if they had an average day- they didn’t. No surprises.

So because of that, the Vikings went into the race focusing on first but expecting second, and that’s what they got. North Branch finished with 76 points, 22 behind the Wildcats.

The Vikings did their part, running a solid race. Sophomore Nick Ramberg led the way for North Branch by placing third overall, three spots better than 2003 when he took sixth overall. Right behind him was J.J. Koerber who placed 11 overall. Both were selected all-conference.

Brandon Nagle, Aaron Cedergren, and Mitchell Pohlkamp followed with all-conference honorable mention honors. Nagle missed the all-conference cut by nine seconds, finishing 16 overall. Cedergren and Pohlkamp ran 22 and 23.

“They (Chisago Lakes) just had a superb race, they were tough,” commented Gilkerson. “We had a balanced race, but we knew that we would have to have everything go right and for them to have a bad day for us to beat them. That didn’t happen, but even so, we had a great day.”

Nick Sausen and Cody Good rounded out the Viking line-up, both finishing in the top 35 overall. A total of 58 runners ran in the race.

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