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In the most recent battles, North Branch had been coming out on top of the cross country meets on both the boys and girls sides when the two county rivals take each other on.

But, this year, the Wildcats were able to earn a split with a commanding win in the boys half of the race.

Josh Olinger, Andy Magnuson and Caleb Gieske took the top three spots of the varsity meet for Chisago Lakes. Olinger finished in 18:02, Magnuson was right behind with an 18:04 finish and Gieske finished in 18:12.

North Branch's Colin Charpentier broke up the Chisago Lakes sweep with a fourth place finish with a time of 18:19, but it wasn't nearly enough, as four more Chisago boys crossed after him, including Noah Rockenback, Quinton Lee, Dusty Weidell and Peter Tengwall

"The boys had a fantastic race," Head Coach Ken Orwoll said of his charges. "Josh Olinger and Andy Magnuson had great races and are back to their old selves, leading the team like they had done all last year. Caleb and Noah ran another quality race. They have been the most consistent runners for us all year. Peter Tengwall has moved up to run in a pack with Quinton Lee and Dusty Weidell to made the top seven that much stronger."

Jon Amundson, Erik Fitch and Zach Peno all finished between ninth and 12th for the North Branch boys team.

The Wildcats won the dual meet with 17 points, while North Branch finished a long ways away with 46 points.

Girls

In the girls half of the race, the Wildcats took the top spot, but it was the Vikings who had too much depth for Chisago Lakes to handle.

Kaylee Ryan took the top spot for CL with a 15:59, and she was followed by Kendra Norman and Megan Zimmerman of North Branch in second and third place, respectively. Both girls finished in 16:22.

Mary Cross of Chisago Lakes finished in fourth place with a time of 16:35, but a trio of Vikings followed her and sealed the win for North Branch. Casey Hovland finished in fifth, Alyssa Ramberg crossed the finish line in sixth and Haley Huset finished in seventh.

The girls meet was a lot closer than the boys, but North Branch took that one with 23 points while Chisago Lakes scored 34.

"On the girls side it just showed us how strong the North Branch girls team is and that we are not that far off them," Orwoll noted. "I'm hopeful that we can pick it up some for the conference meet.

"It was good to get in one more meet before conference and sections. Overall we did well. If was the first meet in some time with all of our varsity kids healthy."

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