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North Suburban Conference Championships

After taking a hiatus from winning the conference championship last year, the North Branch girls cross country team was right back at it in 2010.

The meet was held at Bassett Creek Park in Crystal, which seems to be a favorite course of the Vikes. They placed four runners in the top 10 to pace the girls to a fairly easy win in the event. Junior Megan Zimmerman was the top Viking, finishing in third place overall with a time of 16:04.

Freshman Casey Hovland was just behind Zimmerman, crossing the finish line in 16:08 in fourth place overall.

Senior Kendra Norman and sophomore Alyssa Ramberg rounded out the top 10 of the meet. Norman finished in sixth place with a time of 16:17, and Ramberg finished in 10th place with a time of 16:23.

Freshman Haley Huset sealed the victory for North Branch when she finished in 17th place in the meet, giving the Vikings a total of 40 points. "What a fun surprise!" Head Coach Anna Pouliot said after the win. "Congrats to the girls for winning, they all worked hard to get to that top spot."

Pouliot noted that Zimmerman, Hovland, Norman and Ramberg all ran personal best times in the meet, which helped push each other to new limits.

Freshmen Cassidy White and Carrie Hischer finished out the top seven for North Branch in 31st and 32nd place.

Totino-Grace finished in second place with 81 points and Robbinsdale Cooper clocked in in third place with 95 points. They were the only three teams to finish under 100.

As a result of their finishes, Zimmerman, Hovland, Norman and Ramberg all earned All-North Suburban Conference awards, and Huset earned All-NSC Honorable Mention.

The girls junior varsity team also placed second out of seven complete teams.

Boys

The boys team struggled a bit in the conference meet, placing only one runner in the top 47.

"While the boys weren't in the top half of the conference, there were still some amazing performances across the board," Pouliot said.

Colin Charpentier was the most impressive, finishing in eight place with a time of 17:23. The finish earned him All-NSC for the boys.

The rest of the boys finished in a pack near the back end of the race. Erik Fitcha, Zach Peno, Kyle Crowell, Jon Amundson and Mike Vogel all finished within 23 seconds of each other. Fitcha and Peno went back-to-back in 48th and 49th place, Crowell finished in 53rd, Amundson in 57th and Vogel in 58th.

Although a lot of them, as well as plenty of junior varsity runners, ran season best times. Fitcha, Peno, Crowell, Vogel, Ean Charpentier, Branden Heidelberger, Seth Eastwood, Josh Frich, Kyle Granger, Blake Degerstrom and Joe Meemken all had season bests.

The Vikings finished in ninth place as a team, beating out only Spring Lake Park.

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