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The North Branch girls cross country team finished off the ultra-rare sweep of the top five spots on Thursday, Sept. 11.

The girls had to get on their horses and run fast, a dark cloud loomed for most of the boys portion of the meet, and the rain started to come down just as the girls were starting up.

The sweep on the girls side secured the distance runners an easy first place finish in the meet of five complete teams. The boys squad was narrowly edged out by conference foe Irondale, finishing in second place.

Hosting their own meet, the Vikings guys started the day out with a strong race from their top runners.

Senior Ryan Norman completed the 5K distance in 17:53 flat. The time was good enough for a third place finish for the veteran runner, behind Tarek Abdelishaliq of Irondale and Zach Swanson of Pine City.

The next Viking to cross the checkered line was sophomore Colin Charpentier. The underclassman scooted across the line not far behind Norman, finishing in 18:05 in sixth place.

A gang of Vikings then all crossed the finish line withing eight seconds of each other. Senior Mike Heidelberger clocked in at 18:50 for an 11th place finish. Fellow senior Zach Good came in right behind at 18:56 in 12th place, and the trio of Viking finishers was capped off by junior Joe Klun in 13th place with a time of 18:57.

Senior Boyd Suparat was the next Viking in, clocking in at 19:29 in 19th place. Freshman Jon Amundson was the last Viking to cross, only one spot behind Suparat. He finished in 20th place with a time of 20:03.

Irondale won the meet with a score of 33, and North Branch was second with a 45. Rush City earned third place with a 73, just beating out Pine City, who finished fourth place with a 75.

" Our boys varsity had a nice challenge from another North Suburban Conference team in Irondale," Head Coach Brian Hasleiet pointed out. "It was nice to see how we stack up against one of the better teams in our conference. Now we just need to keep working hard and keep improving in the next month before we get to the conference meet."

In the girls half of the meet, the Vikings couldn't have been more impressive.

The top five spots were all claimed by Vikings, and only one runner snuck in to prevent the top seven finishers from being Vikings.

Senior veteran Briana Berthiaume paced the red-and-black clad brigade in their conquest of the invite. She finished the race in 16:31 in first place. "Briana continued her extremely impressive season and won the individual title.," Hasleiet said. "Briana has worked so hard to have this kind of success. It's really exciting to see her running so well."

Junior Miranda Charley was the next girl to cross the finish line, securing a second place finish in 16:52. Alyssa Kroschel and Shayna Gray were right behind Charley, side-by-side. The pair finish with identical times of 16:53, one second off of Charley's pace.

Haley Hasleiet was the next Vikings across, completing the sweep in fifth place with a time of 16:56. The girls second through fifth place finishers were all within four seconds of each other, and the consistency is what is key for them in the long run.

Austyn Eng, a freshman from Braham finished in sixth place to prevent the Vikings from sweeping the top seven spots truly, but since Braham didn't have a full team, the next two runners across got the sixth and seventh place finishes in the team score anyway.

Ali Zimmerman was the Viking who finished in seventh place. The sophomore crossed the line in 17:14. Senior Dani Privratsky finished the running off for the Vikings with a 17:17, finishing in eighth place.

North Branch scored the perfect 15, and was light years ahead of Rush City, who finished in second place with a 75. The Tigers had just edged out Irondale, who finished third place with a 76.

"You don't see a perfect score in cross country very often, so that was a lot of fun for our girls," Hasleiet said.

The Vikings won't take the course again until this Saturday, Sept. 20, when they travel to Milaca for the prestigious and huge Milaca Mega Meet. The races will kick off at 9 a.m. It will be the Vikings second venture at Milaca, and they will be running wild in hopes of a big win on the state scene.

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