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The Wildcat girls cross country team had quite the duel with the Hibbing Bluejackets in the Section 7AA meet at the Hibbing Municipal Golf Course on Thursday, October 24.

Hibbing got the team victory by one point, compiling just 46 points while Chisago Lakes had 47 points, but both teams punched their ticket to state comfortably, as third place Hermantown finished with 81 points.

Annika Hall was the section champion for the second year in a row. The freshman finished the race in 18:09.1, which was more than a minute faster than Hibbing’s Tara Hertling, who finished in second place.

CL’s Kaia Osmundson had a nice finish in her penultimate meet for the cross country team, coming in fourth place with a time of 19:28.4. The ‘Cats next finisher, though, didn’t come across until 13th place when Ava Gellerman, Arianna Husfeldt and Mataya Malek finished consecutively in a group. Gellerman finished in 21:11.4, Husfeldt in 21:11.9 and Malek in 21:18.6.

In between those three and Osmundson were three runners from Hibbing. Their fifth runner was just a bit behind that trio in 17th place, and that allowed them to sneak ahead of the Wildcats. Had they tied, the ‘Cats held the tiebreaker, as Lauren Kowarsch was the next finisher from either time to cross the checkered line, coming in 20th place with a time of 21:26.3.

On the boys side, Chisago Lakes’ Kaden Osmundson, a junior, and North Branch senior Jordan Stumm claimed individual state meet spots. Osmundon came in 11th place with a time of 17:21.8 and Stumm was in 10th place with a time of 17:14.9. He’ll be going to the state meet for the second year in a row.

Chisago Lakes’ sophomore Remy Larsen just barely missed out on a state entrance as well, finishing in 13th place with a time of 17:35.4.

Cloquet and Grand Rapids won the team berths to the state meet on the boys side.

The state meet will be this weekend at the Les Bolstad Golf Course at the University of Minnesota. Class AA girls will kick off the day long event with a 10 a.m. start time. Stumm and Kaden Osmundson will follow at approximately 10:45 a.m.

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