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Milaca Mega Meet - Boys
The Milaca Mega Meet really lived up to its name this year.
The huge meet in the little town of 2,500 people drew 148 teams and 4,458 runners, making it the largest high school cross country meet in the world. And Chisago Lakes was right in the thick of things when the winners were determined.
The Wildcats finished second in the 24-team Class AAA behind only New Prague.
The ‘Cats were led by Nick Bartz and Zac West. The pair ran together nearly the whole race and came in back-to-back in 16th and 17th place. Bartz’s time was 17:17 and West’s was 17:21.
“Nick Bartz and Zac West ran a great race together, really pushing each other with Nick just having a little extra at the end,” Head Coach Ken Orwoll said.
The top 20 finishes were even more impressive considering there were 177 runners in the Class AAA race.
Quinton Lee nabbed a top 30 finish, coming in 25th with a time of 17:44. Sophomore Eli Olson wasn’t far behind, coming in 31st with a time of 17:51.
Normally, the Wildcats would feature Jake Schwelling in their top five, but he missed the meet. CL’s fifth runner ended up being Phil LaPlante, who finished in 105th place with a time of 19:19.5, just topping fellow junior Hunter Worden, who came in with a time of 19:19.8 in 106th place.
“Phil and Hunter  really stepped it up for the team. ,” Orwoll said. “Both ran their best races to date.”
The Wildcats tallied 194 points to finish in second place. New Prague won the meet with 131 points. Chaska was just behind CL, scoring 198 points.
The Vikings of North Branch came in 21st place with 561 points. They were led by Scott Ramberg and Cole Willis. Ramberg finished in 60th place in 18:24 while Willis came in 73rd place with a time of 18:37.
Girls
Both North Branch and Chisago Lakes split their varsity teams up to allow their runners to compete in the correct age group, leaving both varsity squads in tough spots. North Branch had an incomplete team score and CL finished in 20th place out of 27 teams.
However, the highlight of the two came from Rhianna Rinke. The super sophomore finished in ninth place in the meet with a time of 15:15. One of the girls in front of her is from North Dakota, so she is primed to make a lot of noise at the state meet this year. “Her race was outstanding,” North Branch Head Coach Anna Geary said. “Congratulations to her.”
Chisago Lakes’ Kathryn Sistrunk and Natalie Sandstrom, both seniors, finished in the top 65. Sistrunk came in 55th place with a time of 16:42 and Sandstrom finished in 16:53 in 63rd place.
CL’s Katie Christy finished out their varsity runners with a 91st place finish with a time of 17:23.
In the younger races, North Branch had Aiden Bear and Madi Belland finish in the top 20. Bear finished 18th in the eighth grade race and Belland came in 17th in the 10th grade race with a time of 16:30.
The Wildcats had three varsity girls run in the ninth grade race who did well, pacing that squad to a second place finish. Ellie Zemlin and Rebekah Olinger were the top runners. Zemlin finished sixth with a time of 16:30, which was a personal best for her. Olinger came in with a time of 17:36 to finish 22nd. Annika Dubbs came in 24th with a time of 17:58.

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