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In the annual showdown between the northern-most North Suburban Conference teams, North Branch ran away with a dual meet win over the Chisago Lakes Wildcats.

The 'Cats struggled to keep up in both races and North Branch flaunted their talent and depth in both the boys and the girls races.

In the boys event, the Vikings swept the top four spots, as well as 11 of the top 12 spots.

Ryan Norman finished far and away as the top competitor for either team, completing the race in 17:44.

Senior Viking Mike Heidelberger was the next participant to cross the finish line. He came in at 18:26, almost a half-minute behind Norman.

Sophomore Colin Charpentier and junior Joe Klun were the next Vikings in at the end of the race. It was a dead heat between the two teammates as both Charpentier and Klun finished the race with a time of 18:32.00

Chisago Lakes sophomore Josh Olinger broke up the North Branch sweep, finishing in fifth place with a time of 18:56.

After Olinger, however, the red and black domination continued in the dual. In the next one minute and 16 seconds, Boyd Suparat, Tommy Toohey, Zach Good, Jon Amundson, Zach Jacobson, Josh Kloos and Eirk Fitcha all crossed the finish line for North Branch.

The Wildcats' Bart Vukich broke up the Vikings' string of runners with a 13th place finish in 20:17.

The Wildcats that finished to round out the top five were Peter Tengwall in 20:40, Riley Myers in 21:06 and Liam Coulter in 23:34.

In the girls portion, Chelsea Johnson did all she could to carry the Wildcats, but in the end, she only counts as one runner for the young and inexperienced Wildcats.

North Branch, which has a wealth of experienced runners who have been on varsity for a few years, was led by a familiar face. Briana Berthiaume led the Vikings and the whole pack throughout most of the race en route to a first place finish in 16:11.

Johnson came across the finish line in second place for the 'Cats, clocking in at 16:29.

Just behind her, however, was a parade of Vikings. Ninth-grader Alyssa Kroschel finished in third place with a time of 1:34, and Ali Zimmerman and Shayna Gray had a tight finish as both completed the 4K run in 16:42.

Just behind them was junior Miranda Charley in sixth place with a time of 16:46, and senior Dani Privratsky in 16:50.

The younger Zimmerman sister, Megan, finished in eighth place with a time of 17:01, and Haley Hasleiet clocked in at ninth place wit a time of 17:11.

Freshman Mary Cross broke up the monotony of North Branch competitors with a 10th place finish in 17:29.

The last three Wildcats to finish out the varsity scoring were Makayla Grote in 19:00, Madi Vukich in 19:27 and Becca Schmidt in 20:09.

"This was a nice tune up for the conference meet next week," Head Coach Brian Hasleiet noted. "Our kids ran really well and we really believe these last couple of meets will carry into the conference and section meets."

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