---

With the goal of making the state tournament already checked off of her list, Chisago Lakes junior Chelsea Johnson focused her sights on a good showing at the annual tournament at St. Olaf College in Northfield.

Right away, the setting was foreign to Johnson. Not only was it her first time running at St. Olaf's course, she wasn't used to running in a meet where she was surrounded by competitors the whole time. "She has never ran a race from start to finish in a crowd," Head Coach Ken Orwoll said. "It's so hard to run your own race when every turn and every hill affects the crowd you are running with. Chelsea adjusted well and ran a very competitive race."

Chelsea finished in 81st place out of 157 runners with a time of 15:47.5, right in the middle of the field of runners. "She had a good race and it was a great learning experience for her," Orwoll said.

One big goal of Johnson's was accomplished, as she finished ahead of Kayla Johnson of St. Francis, who narrowly edged out Chelsea in the Section 7AA race previous to the state meet.

Orwoll also noted that a good amount of friends and family turned out to Northfield to support Chelsea. "We are just so proud of her," he said.

---