'Cats battle weather at Swain Invitational

Centennial Invite Andy Magnuson was the only thing between a Centennial clean sweep at the top of the standings in the Centennial Invite last week. Centennial’s Jon Keller won the meet with a time of 16:32 while Wildcat Andy Magnuson came in second with a time of 16:46. The junior was the only non-Centennial runner in the top seven. Spots third through seventh were Cougars, and they added the ninth place finisher. After the however, a flood of Wildcats came in together. Carl Osterberg came in 11th place with a time of 17:37 and he was followed by Quinton Lee, Zach West and Carson Velaski.

Lee came in 12th with a time of 17:50, West in 13th with a time of 17:55 and Velaski in 14th with a time of 18:02. Nick Rockenback finished in 16th place with a time of 18:03. The near sweep at the top of the race gave Centennial the easy win with 19 team points. Chisago Lakes finished second with 52 points. North Suburban Conference rival Spring Lake Park finished in third place with 94 points. Centennial is currently ranked sixth in the state, so they have a deep team. “We finished in a pack that would’ve been impressive almost anywhere else,” Head Coach Ken Orwoll said. The girls race played out an awful lot like the boys race. Senior Abbi Forsman was the only runner who kept Centennial from a clean sweep. However, Forsman won the race for the Wildcats with a 14:51, leaving her just two seconds off of the school record time of 14:49. A sea of red followed her with the Cougars claiming spots two through seven. The Wildcats were right there, however. Rebekah Olinger and Katie Christy came in eighth and ninth place in 16:22 and 16:23, respectively.

They were only 11 seconds away from the last Centennial runner. Liz Coulter and Madi Vukich then came in near each other. Coulter finished in 12th place with a time of 17:11 and Vukich finished in 13th place with a time of 17:24. The Cougars won the meet with a score of 20. Chisago Lakes was second with 43 and North Suburban Conference rival Fridley was third with 89 points. The Tigers just barely edged out Spring Lake Park, who finished with 92 points. “I really thought Abbi had it,” Orwoll said, referring to the school record. “She was in control the whole race. Her splits were very good in spite of a course with too many sharp turns.” Rebecka Olinger and Katie Christy also had good races finishing in the top ten. Liz Coulter was solid again and Madi Vukich had her best race of the year. The team finished second behind a very good Centennial team. Swain Invite The Wildcats took part in their other giant meet of the year over the weekend at Enger Park in Duluth.

The Swain Invite brings together thousands of runners, and the Wildcats had quite an impressive showing. Orwoll split the team up into their own age groups, however, to get a true feeling of their competition level. In the boys varsity race, the team was able to field a full slate of competitors, but it was missing four of the regulars. Magnuson finished 10th overall in the race with a time of 16:32. Osterberg finished in 37th with a time of 17:19 and Noah Rockenback finished in 67th with a time of 17:53. They were the only three to finish in the top 150 for CL.

The other runners were Florian Plonsky in 166th place, Matt Hoffman in 170th, Marcus Peterson in 173rd and Alex Franer in 180th. In the sophomore boys event, Chisago Lakes took home the title. West, Quinton Lee, Tanner Haus and Nick Bartz were the catalysts for the victory. West and Lee went back-to-back in fourth and fifth place and Haus and Bartz did the same in 11th and 12th place. In the girls race, Forsman finished in third place overall in the varsity 4K with a time of 15:25. Only three other varsity runners competed in that event. Coulter finished in 124th, Vukich in 144th and Ali Fuller in 155th. For the sophomore girls, they also didn’t have enough for a full team score, but Katie Christy did finished in third place overall with a time of 12:17. “I was really impressed on how well be did in the cold weather and the very hilly course,” Orwoll said. “We had outstanding performances in every race we competed in. “The boys sophomore race with our ninth and 10th graders had an outstanding race,” he continued. “They were the top team. Zach West and Quinton Lee had great races and Tanner Haus and Nick Bartz really got fired up for a shorter race and a chance to run together.”