Girls and boys varsity teams run 5,000-meter course
Mountain Lake Area (MLA) Wolverines Girls and Boys Cross Country teams hosted the Wolverine Invitational at Mountain Lake Golf Course on Wednesday morning, August 31. It was the 45th annual race at the site (combined Laker Invitational and Wolverine Invitational runs).
Girls and boys runners representing 12 teams ran the identical 5,000-meter (3.1 mile) varsity course.
Fairmont’s Jenna Pavich finished at the front of the 87-runner varsity girls’ race, besting the second-place runner by 14 seconds with her time of 20:15. Murray County Central’s Morgan Gehl took the silver with 20:29, followed closely by Heron Lake-Okabena’s Rachel Salentiny, earning the bronze at 20:31.
Pavich led five of her Cardinal teammates to medals as Fairmont repeated as the girls team champions with 33 points. Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial/Nicollet finished second with 97. The Windom Eagles finished third with 101, followed by Murray County Central/Fulda (104), Jackson County Central (134), United South Central/Alden-Conger (135), Adrian (180), Southwest Minnesota Christian/Edgerton (202) and Martin County West (233). MLA was 10th with 259 points. Running incomplete were Heron Lake-Okabena and Madelia/Truman/Granada-Huntley-East Chain.
MLA’s top five runners used to compile the team score had senior Liana Blomgren the first Wolverine into the chute, finishing 35th with a time of 24:07; followed by Rebekah Klassen, 61st with 28:10; Jorja Lepp, 69th with 29:12; Karen Soutthivong 73rd with 29:52 and Summer Janzen, 74th with 29:53. Additional varsity runners were Merel Caminada (34:47) and Emma Stade (35:09).
Windom Area senior John Irwin ran away from the 100-runner field in the boys varsity race, hitting the chute at 16:51, far ahead of second-place Nathan Willett of Fairmont, whose time was 17:33.
Tommy Kraemer, MLA senior, was the 13th runner in with a time of 18:42. Other scorers included Emilio Garcia, 20th at 19:21; Josiah Gardiner, 23rd with 19:24; Aaron Fast, 27th at 19:33 and Ryan Blomgren, 34th at 19:52. Also running the boys varsity course were Andrew Fast (20:20), Bubba Xayachak (21:27), Emmanuel Fentanez (22:22), Dima Hanson (23:02), Brandon Louangsaphakdy (26:51), Hamlock Tanyavong (29:23) and Paxton Morin (32:59).
Fairmont won the tighter boys team chase, scoring 63; edging out Martin County West (66) and defending champ Murray County Central/Fulda (71). Windom Area was fourth with 88, with MLA scoring 112 for a 5th-place team finish. The remaining complete teams ran United South Central/Alden-Conger, 6th with 161; Heron Lake-Okabena, 7th with 196, Lake Crystal-Wellcome/Nicollet, 8th with 208; Jackson County Central, 9th with 230 and Madelia/Truman/Granada-Huntley-East Chain, 10th with 293. Adrian and Southwest Minnesota Christian/Edgerton ran incomplete teams.
The Wolverines’ next run will be Thursday, September 8, at the Tracy Invite. Junior high runners will complete at Luverne on Saturday, September 10.
