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Chisago Lakes’ runners Kaia Osmundson and Annika Hall have been outstanding at most of the meets they’ve been in this year, usually finishing first and second and pacing the Wildcats’ girls team.

It comes as no surprise, then, that the pair of girls claimed the top two spots at their home Chisago Lakes Invite last week at Ki Chi Saga County Park on Tuesday, September 19.

Osmundson, a junior, finished in 18:48.40 to claim the top spot by nearly 10 seconds. Hall, only an eighth grader, was second, in 18:57.60, which was exactly three seconds ahead of Monticello’s Isabel Mahoney in third place.

The event marked the third meet in a row the two have finished one-two dating back to the Rock Ridge Invite and the Pine City Invite.

Lainey Hallan, a Chisago Lakes senior, came in 11th place for the Wildcats with a time of 21:17.10, but they didn’t get another competitor across the finish line until sophomore Grace Steele finished in 36th place in 23:24.10. Lauren Kowarsch, another sophomore, finished in 38th place with a time of 23:32.60 to round out CL’s scoring.

The results ended up scoring Chisago Lakes’ an 88, good enough for fourth place in the event.

For North Branch girls, they didn’t field a full varsity squad, so they didn’t have a team score. Eighth grader Ava Witkowski led them in 39th place. Maria Damiani finished in 50th, Kylie Anderson came in 55th and Ruby Hanson finished in 59th place.

Boys

On the boys side of the race, both Chisago Lakes and North Branch had a top 10 finishers, but then Chisago Lakes took over from there.

Biruk Killeen was the top finisher for the Wildcats, with the junior coming in seventh place with a time of 17:21.10.

Sophomore Kaden Osmundson came in 14th with a time of 17:42.60, and he was pretty quickly followed by Remy Larsen, Nolan Levasseur and Henry Johnson, all of whom finished between 18th and 22nd.

Their team score of 80 was tied for second place with Cambridge-Isanti. Monticello took first place with 56 points.

North Branch’s top spot went to junior Jordan Stumm. He finished in 17:33.30 to come in ninth place in the met. But then the next closest finishers after that were Andrew Witkowski in 33rd place, Nathanael Damiani in 38th place, William Stelmack in 49th and Joseph Damiani in 59th place.

North Branch came in seventh place with a score of 187.

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