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Chisago Lakes Invitational

The boys and girls cross country teams finally had a meet in their own backyard, and they didn't disappoint anyone who turned out to watch them tackle the course at Ki Chi Saga Park in Lindstrom.

The boys took first place in the meet behind a one-two finish from senior Luke McKenzie and sophomore Andy Magnuson. McKenzie finished the race in 17:07, which was over a half minute clear of anyone else, and Magnuson came in second in 17:37.

Those two lead runners were the only guys on the day to break 18 minutes as the third place finisher from Legacy Christian Academy finished in 18:05.

Noah Rockenback, a junior, finished in fifth place with a time of 18:38, freshman Quinton Lee came in seventh place with a time of 18:55, and then a trio of Wildcats finished out the varsity scoring by finishing 10th, 11th and 12th. Matt Hoffman, Carl Osterberg and Zach West came in at 19:19, 19:36 and 19:42, respectively.

The Wildcats finished in first place by a wide margin, scoring 25 team points. Conference foe Fridley came in second with 58 points, Legacy Academy finished third with 71 points, East Central finished with 86 and the FAIR School came in with 138 points. Moose Lake-Willow River didn't field a complete team.

Girls

The girls matched the boys feat by not only winning the team competition, but they also put the first two finishers across the checkered line.

Junior Abbi Forsman finished in 16:21, which was almost a full minute ahead of her teammate Mary Cross, who came in second with a time of 17:17.

Katie Christy finished in fourth place with a time of 17:39 to give the 'Cats three of the top four finishers. Only an East Central runner broke up the trio from sweeping the top three spots.

After Legacy Christian put three straight finishers through, the Wildcats finished their varsity runs with a trio of their own. Madi Vukich, Ali Fuller and Kayla Gibson finished in eighth, ninth and 10th with times of 18:17, 18:30 and 18:32, respectively.

Chisago Lakes won the meet with a 24 and Fridley came in second with an 82. Although their was four other teams, none of them had the required five runners to register a varsity score, so Legacy Academy, East Central, FAIR School and Moose Lake-Willow River all finished with incompletes.

"We had a very fun meet at home," Head Coach Ken Orwoll said. "Both boys and girls varsities and JV's won their races. Everyone ran well."

Swain Invitational

At the gigantic Swain Invitational in Duluth, the Wildcats did the same thing that they did at the Milaca Mega Meet -- they ran their kids in their grade level to see how they stack up against others.

For the boys varsity team, McKenzie was the pace-setter, and he finished in second once again. After just barely missing out on first at the Mega Meet, he dueled with seventh-ranked senior Riley Macon from Rochester Mayo for the top spot at the Swain. Macon and McKenzie battled each others kicks all the way down to the end as the lead changed four different times over the last half-mile of the race. "Luke ran an incredible race to finish second," Orwoll said. "It was great to watch."

McKenzie finished in second in 16:00, as Macon eventually got the better of him at the end.

Rockenback finished in 81st place in a time of 18:20, Peter Tengwall came in 140th, Al Vrudny came in 162nd and Marcus Peterson finished in 177th.

As a team, the boys finished 23rd out of 27 complete varsity teams.

The sophomore team, which featured the promising trio of Magnuson, Lee, West and Hoffman came in second place out of 19 full teams. Magnuson won the event with a time of 13:42, Lee finished in 10th with a time of 14:55, West was in 18th with a time of 15:11 and Hoffman finished in 15:42 for 34th place.

Jake Schwelling and Osterberg also had great meets as sophomores, Schwelling finished in 36th place with a time of 15:45 and Osterberg came in 42nd place with a time of 15:49.

Girls

The girls only fielded a varsity team, and they didn't fare as well as the boys. They were missing top runners Forsman and Cross. Forsman had a prior family commitment and Cross had an academic commitment.

In their absence, Christy, Vukich, Fuller, Gibson and Grace Sapp were the top five runners for Chisago Lakes.

Christy finished in 80th, Vukich in 126th, Fuller in 127th, Gibson in 158th and Sapp in 168th.

As a team, the girls finished 25th out of 28 teams at the stacked event.

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