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The maturation of Kaylee Ryan simply continues.

The sophomore sensation continued her exceptional run this year with two good finishes in two big invites.

St. Francis Invitational

In this section-heavy invite, Ryan finished in third place among some of the better runners in the state, and really proclaimed herself to be the real deal. She ran a personal best time of 15:11. which helped the girls to a second place finish in the meet.

Their 102 was far off of the 26-point pace Elk River set at the top, but thanks to Ryan and Mary Cross finishing in 15th place, the girls nabbed second place.

Behind them were St. Francis, Cooper, Blaine, Spring Lake Park, Irondale, Fridley and Cambridge-Isanti.

The boys finished eighth out of 13 teams behind 16th and 17th place finishes by Caleb Gieske and Andy Magnuson, both of whom ran personal bests.

"We had a great meet at St. Francis," and exuberant Ken Orwoll, Head Coach of the 'Cats, said after the meet. "I don't remember a meet when everyone that ran, ran a season personal best. It was a great day for running."

Milaca Mega Meet

At the yearly Mega Meet, which is billed as the biggest cross country meet in the country, Ryan continued her impressive sophomore campaign at the meet. She ran another 15:11, which put her in fifth place out of 109 girls in the varsity race.

The Mega Meet divides the varsity races into four classes to accommodate the large number of teams and kids on the course. There were 100 teams and over 3,800 runners in the meet.

"Kaylee once again proved she can run with some of the best runners in the state," Orwoll said after the race.

Mary Cross and Kelsey Sorenson also ran strong races, with Cross coming in 39th place and Sorenson in 62nd.

The times led to a 10th place finish for the Wildcats with 254 points.

As for actual team scores, they were affected some by Orwoll's decision to put some of his younger runners in their age bracket, and not on the varsity squad. "We let our younger varsity runners run in their age group races instead of varsity for this one and they did very well," he said.

Among the younger runners and their finishes were:

-Quinton Lee - Sixth out of 184 runners in the eighth grade race.

-Liz Coulter - 23rd out of 124 runners in the ninth grade race.

-Ali Fuller - 26th out of 172 runners in the 10th grade race.

-Noah Rockenback - 14th out of 204 runners in the 10th grade race.

On the boys varsity side, Gieske and Josh Olinger were the top two finishers for the 'Cats, with Gieske finishing in 23rd out 99 runners and Olinger coming in 38th place.

The Wildcats suffered without on of their top runners, as Magnuson was out of the lineup due to injury.

"Caleb Gieske and Josh Olinger both ran very well to lead the Wildcats," Orwoll said. "Peter Tengwall (67th) and Liam Coulter continue to improve every meet and are now running with confidence."

The boys ended up finishing 11th out of 15 full teams at the meet.

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