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Youngsters were at the forefront for the Chisago Lakes boys cross country team as they punched their ticket to the state tournament for the first time in a decade with a Section 7A win at Hibbing Golf Course on Thursday, October 26.

Only one senior finished in the Wildcats’ top five runners, and that was Henry Johnson, who came in 16th place for CL. The top finisher was Biruk Killeen, a junior, who crossed the checkered line in 17:27.60, good enough for fifth place in the 78 runner meet.

“Biruk has been our leader, pacing the guys this year and working hard,” Head Coach Tyler Stettler said. “He’s battled sickness throughout the year but we finally got him healthy and he’s running his best races to the end of the season and it’s great to see.”

Killeen’s performance set the table for the rest of the guys to contribute to a state tournament team. Freshman Remy Larsen finished in an impressive 14th place with a time of 18:07.0, and then Johnson and sophomore Nolan Levasseur went back-to-back in 16th and 17th place. The pair ran together,  just behind Larsen, with Johnson finishing in 18:08.8 and Levasseur finishing in 18:09.40.

By the 31st runner in the chute, Mora, who came in second place, and Hibbing, who came in third, had all five of their runners in and knew their scores. At that point, the Wildcats knew they’d need their fifth and final runner to come in under 47th place. As the anticipation started to build as the ‘Cats didn’t get any other runners in the 30s, sophomore Kaden Osmundson’s dark green and gold jersey appeared down the final stretch, and he crossed the finish line in 40th place with a time of 18:51.60, giving the ‘Cats a total score of 92, which topped Mora by just seven points.

“It’s always fun seeing a pack of guys scoring, Those four guys — Larsen, Johnson, Levasseur and Osmundson — have been running as a pack all season and just working their tails off and pushing each other,” Stettler said. “They wanted it. They had the top ranking going into it, and they went out there and competed and earned it.”

Stettler noted the effort of Johnson, the senior leader of the ‘Cats. “He came through. It was a strong run for Henry. He knew where we needed him and he went out there and had a really strong finish.”

To punctuate matters, Cian O’Halloran, a freshman, was not far behind Osmundson, finishing in 43rd place with a time of 18:56.30.

Stettler is excited for the boys to compete at the state meet this week. “If we can get some good results, we’d hope to be in the mix to compete,” he said. He noted that it’s at a new venue this year, so even though Killeen and Johnson have been to the state meet before, it’ll be a new experience still for them.

Girls

Annika Hall, the eighth grade phenom for Chisago Lakes, was crowned the section champion and earned a second straight state berth by besting the field by almost 20 seconds. She finished in 19:04.0 while second place Lizzy Harnell of Proctor finishing in 19:23.50. 

“Annika was just ready to go for this meet,” Stettle said. “She gave it her all and had a great performance.”

Chisago Lakes’ Kaia Osmundson finished just behind Harnell in third place with a time of 19:24.20, also securing another trip to the state tournament. “Kaia had a great race for us and really brought it this week,” Stettler said.

Ava Bringgold, Lauren Kowarsch and Lainey Hallan finished within 30 seconds of each other from 19th to 27th, but it wasn’t enough to sneak the ‘Cats into the state tournament as a team. Hibbing won the meet with a score of 46 and Proctor came in second with 60 points. Chisago Lakes was third, with 73 points.

Both the boys and girls will be competing on Saturday, November 4 at Les Bolstad Golf Course at the University of Minnesota.

The boys are scheduled to begin their race at 2 p.m. and the girls are scheduled for a 2:45 p.m. start. Awards are at 3:15 p.m.

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