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The Chisago Lakes’ girls cross country team had a nice showing at the large Princeton Tiger Invite on Tuesday, October 8.

They finished in second place, behind only Forest Lake — one of the top teams in Class AA — and did so on the strength of great runs from Annika Hall, Kaia Osmundson, Mataya Malek, Lauren Kowarsch, Arianna Husfeldt, Averiana Gellerman and McKaylie Malek.

Hall paced the team with an 18:14.2, which was good enough for fourth place overall behind two Forest Lake runners and Monticello’s Isabel Mahoney, another elite runner.

Osmundson, who is winding down her illustrious cross country career as a senior, finished in ninth place with a time of 19:45.2.

Mataya Malek, who is an eighth grader who’s burst onto the scene this year, finished in 34th place with a time of 21:28.1, and ninth grader Husfeldt finished just behind her by one-10th of a second, coming in 36th place with a time of 21:28.2. Gellerman and McKaylie Malek weren’t far behind either, pushing to contribute to the score. Gellerman finished in 49th place and Malek in 56th place.

The girls score of 118 points put them in second place, behind  Forest Lake’s 44, but comfortably ahead of Cambridge-Isanti in third place with 147 points and Monticello in fourth place with 148 points.

The 20 team race featured 135 competitors from around the state.

Boys

In the other half of the competition at Princeton Golf Course, the boys’ Wildcat team finished in seventh place with a score of 214.

Kaden Osmundson had one of his better races of the year, finishing in 17th place. The junior came across the finish line in 16:58.1.

Remy Larsen had a nice finish for the ‘Cats as well, coming in 30th place with a time of 17:26.2. Senior Biruk Killeen didn’t have his fastest time for the ‘Cats on the day, finishing in 57th place with a time of 18:06.3

Nolan Levasseur was the fourth scoring run for the varsity team with an 18:08.1. Sophomore Cian O’Halloran rounded out the team score with a finishing time of 18:09.8.

Gavin Harrer and Jack Evans were the other boys to finish the race. Harrer came in 9th and Evans in 115th for the Wildcats.

Mississippi 8 Conference foil Big Lake took home the crown at the invite, finishing with 86 points and just edging out Rockford’s 88 points.

Northwest had 123 points in third and Becker and Forest Lake rounded out the top five. Delano was the other team to finish in front of the Wildcats.

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