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Four-for-five is a killer average in baseball. It's a good completion percentage for quarterbacks. It's a 'B' on an important midterm. But, for the North Branch girls cross country team, it's the penultimate achievement to a long, tough season.

Four out of the past five years, the girls have been standing at the top of their conference. They won the last Rum River Conference title five years ago, and have won three North Suburban Conference titles in their four years in the league.

The girls won the event not with one single otherworldly performance, they simply were more consistent than their NSC foes. "The girls have worked so hard this year, and all of that hard work paid off on Tuesday," Head Coach Brian Hasleiet gushed.

North Branch's top finisher, Briana Berthiaume, didn't even crack the top five. But her, along with five of her other teammates all found a way to finish within the top 15 of the 66-person race.

Berthiaume ran one of her better times this year, breaking the 16-minute mark and finishing in sixth place in 15:52. Behind her, in seventh place, was sophomore Ali Zimmerman, who finished in 16:10.

The Vikings model of consistency worked wonders. Although Totino Grace had two runners finish ahead of the Vikings' top runner, including TG junior Jennifer Dillon in first place, the Eagles fell to fourth place because they lacked the depth that the Vikings enjoy.

Besides Berthiaume and Zimmerman's back-to-back finishes, the other five Vikings finished in a large pack.

Sophomore Shayna Gray, freshman Megan Zimmerman, junior Miranda Charley and senior Dani Privratsky finished, in order, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th. Gray led the pack with a 16:18 and Privratsky clocked in the back end with a 16:26.

Freshman Alyssa Kroschel completed the Vikings' varsity runners with a very solid 16th place finish, only four seconds off the pace that Privratsky set at 16:32.

The total team points for the Vikings added up to be 46, more than 20 points ahead of second place finisher Robbinsdale Cooper, who finished as the only other team under 100 with a 67.

Benilde-St. Margaret's and Totino-Grace finished in a third place tie at 110 points.

"It was a great team performance once again," Hasleiet said. "These girls have worked so hard and not just during the season."

Hasleiet noted it wasn't just the top seven that made the feat possible, nor was it just the in-season practice. "Our top 10 girls have put in a lot of summer running and also ran track last year," he said. "These girls have been running since last March non-stop. It was a great day for all of our girls."

It's now time for the girls to set their sights on a section championship and a berth in the state tournament. "There are some very good teams in our section, so it will be difficult," Hasleiet surmised. "But these girls are tough, and they'll give it their best."

Boys

The boys half of the team didn't win the NSC, but they earned a top five finish and had a breakout performance by senior Mike Heidelberger.

For most of the year Heidelberger has been finishing second for the Vikings, behind stalwart Ryan Norman. The tandem usually combines to make a good score for North Branch, and the conference race was no different, except for the fact that Heidelberger overtook Norman.

"Mike is finally healthy and he ran the best race he's run in a couple of years," Hasleiet said.

The two were neck-and-neck most of the race. Even coming into the final stretch, Heidelberger held only a slight lead over his teammate. Heidelberger fended Norman and the pair of hard-charging Irondale Knight's on his tail to finish in sixth place out of 69 runners with a time of 16:59. Five seconds later, Norman crossed the finish line in ninth place with a time of 16:04.

"Ryan showed the consistency he's showed all year by finishing in ninth place," Hasleiet noted of his senior.

Although the two seniors have finished one-two on the Vikings in every race they've been in together, sophomore Colin Charpentier is always just on the cusp of the two more experienced runners. This race was no different, as Charpentier finished in 18th place less than 30 seconds behind Heidelberger and Norman.

Zach Good and Tommy Toohey capped the scoring runners off for the Vikings. Good, a senior, finished in 18:03 in 31st place and Toohey, a sophomore, finished in 18:17 in 34th place.

Joe Klun and Boyd Suparat weren't far behind, with Klun in 35th place in a time of 18:18, and Suparat in 37th place at 18:26.

The boys' 98 points put them in fourth place in the team results, only four points behind the Fridley Tigers.

"I feel our boys ran their best team race of the year," Hasleiet pointed out. "I anticipate that they will run even better this week at the section meet. These guys keep getting better with every race they run this year, and I don't see that changing."

Hasleiet also likes the senior leadership that Heidelberger, Norman, Good and Suparat provide. "This is a team with more experience than we've had in a couple of years, and I think that will really pay off big time in a big meet like sections."

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