CL boys headed to state for second year in a row

Section 7AA Meet Boys
Mother Nature never seems to cooperate with the Section 7AA cross country meet, but the chill hasn’t slowed down the Chisago Lakes boys cross country team that past two years. Dealing with light snow flakes, a brisk breeze and some cold temps, the guys qualified for their second straight state tournament, finishing second in the section behind Cloquet.

“We had a great day at sections,” Head Coach Ken Orwoll said. “Before the meet, we knew it would be a battle between the top three teams and only two could go to state.” Those top three teams were Cloquet, Chisago Lakes and Andover. The Lumberjacks won the meet with a score of 61 points. Chisago Lakes had 86 and Andover finished third with 109 points, but the race was nerve-wracking throughout because of the early finishes. Cloquet’s top five runners really ran well to earn the win for them. Their top three runners finished second, fourth and sixth, and then they were capped off by a 23rd and 26th place finish. But, the competition between the Wildcats and Huskies came down to the fifth runner.

After four runners, it was Andover 57, Chisago Lakes 58, but CL’s fifth runner came in well ahead of Andover’s, ensuring second place and a date this weekend at St. Olaf’s College in Northfield for the state cross country meet. The Wildcats were led by Andy Magnuson in the penultimate race of his career. The accomplished senior added one more notch to his belt, winning the section with a time of 16:11.8, beating Dylan Marvel of Cloquet by over nine seconds. “Andy Magnuson ran an unbelievable race. He ran with the top five runners for the first mile and then he didn’t overreact when Lucas Trapp of Elk River, who beat him last year, put on a surge and took 20 meter lead,” Orwoll explained. “He ran his pace and caught him and took the lead just after the two mile mark. From there Andy kept extending his lead and finished 30 meters ahead of the second place finisher.” Orwoll said he believed it was Chisago Lakes’ first ever section champion at the school. The group of runners for Chisago Lakes were grouped pretty tightly.

Junior Zac West and senior Carson Velaski ran most of the race together and were only separated by three seconds at the finish line. West came in 16th place in a time of 16:53 and Velaski came in 17th with a time of 16:56. The Wildcats had never had three runners finish under 17 minutes in a race, ever. Nick Bartz, a sophomore, stayed with them as long as he could but faded near the end. He still ran a personal best time of 17:12 to finish in 24th place. The next three runners rounded out the varsity score and showed the team depth the Wildcats possess this year. Jake Schwelling, Simon Eddy and Quinton Lee finished 28th, 29th and 33rd, respectively. Chisago Lakes had the highest finishing sixth and seventh runner and the second highest fifth runner. In fact, Lee’s 33rd was a higher finish than everyone except Cloquet’s fifth runner.

The top six runners for Chisago Lakes all set personal bests in the big meet, and they are hoping to shave a bit more time off before the state meet this weekend. “I was very pleased how well we competed,” Orwoll said. Our runners really gave it everything they had to try and stick with Cloquet.” The North Branch boys finished in 15th place out of 16 teams. Their top finish came from senior Kyle Granger, who finished in 32nd place in a time of 17:45. Many of the boys had personal best times during the meet, and that pleased NB Head Coach Tom Kingsland. “As coaches, we believe that our athletes all had a great season because they peaked at the perfect time,” he said. “They learned how to work hard, be dedicated to a goal and perform well under pressure.”

Girls
The North Branch girls finished in fifth place at the meet with 163 points, led by freshman Rhianna Rinke. Rinke was only a few seconds off of first place. She finished in second place with a time of 14:41 while Emma Benner of Forest Lake won with a time of 14:38. “We are very proud of Rhianna,” Kingsland said. “This week will be very exciting for the cross country team, North Branch High School and the whole community to see how she does. The level of competition at the state meet is staggering and it will be a very exciting cross country race.”

The Vikings got top 40 finishes from Cassidy White, Madison Belland and Casey Hovland. White came in 31st place with a time of 16:12, Belland in 38th with a time of 16:26 and Hovland in 40th with a time of 16:27. Laura Dolezalek finished off NB’s varsity score with a 52nd place finish in 16:47. The Lady Wildcats finished in eighth place, earning 201 points. Junior Sarah Greene was the top finished for CL, finishing just two spots away from the state tournament in 15th place. Her time of 15:36 left her just on the outside looking in, but it’s still an impressive accomplishment in her first year of cross country. “She fought the whole race to keep up with the leaders, but wasn’t able to catch the last couple she needed at the end,” Orwoll said. “She had nothing left when she finished.” The next three ‘Cats had personal bests.

Rebekah Olinger finished in 22nd place in 15:54, Elizabeth Zemlin finished in 46th place in 16:35 and Leia Spicer came in 57th place with a time of 16:54. Junior Katie Christy wrapped up CL’s varsity performance with a 61st place in 16:59. “Overall it was great to see the team be more competitive with all seven runners returning next year,” Orwoll said. Forest Lake and Elk River were the top two teams who earned state tourney berths. The Rangers scored 50 points while the Elks had 81. The state tournament is on Saturday, Nov. 2 at St. Olaf College in Northfield. Rinke’s race should begin around 10 a.m. and the boys race will follow at 11 a.m.