Liana Blomgren, Mercedes Saengosoth all-conference in girls race; Ryan Blomgren, Aaron Fast, Josiah Gardiner in boys top 10
Mountain Lake Area (MLA) Wolverines varsity girls and boys cross country teams took to the inclines, hills – including “Big Bertha” – and flats at the Slayton Country Club in the Red Rock Conference (RRC) Cross Country Meet on Monday, October 17.
Five Wolverines were named RRC All-Conference (finishing in the top 10), two in the girls run and three in the boys race.
RRC Girls 5,000-meter
Senior Liana Blomgren earned all-conference accolades for the sixth straight year (grades 7-12), finishing in fourth with a time of 22:33 and seventh-grader Mercedes Saengosoth also cracked the top 10, hitting the chute in eighth, clocked at 23:18.
Host Murray County Central/Fulda (MCC/F) held the top girls runner, eighth-grader Morgan Gehl, who ran the course in 20:02. Moriah Bullerman of Adrian finished second at 21:49 and Rachel Salentiny of Southwestern United ran to third with 22:01.
Other MLA girls in the run, their placings and times were as follows – Anika Fast (18th, 24:44), Olivia Klassen (22nd, 25:33), Jordan Wright (23rd, 26:08) Sara Quiring (24th, 26:28), Katherine Hofmann (27th, 27:27), Elizabeth Linscheid (29th, 27:53), Karen Soutthivong (30th, 28:07), Jorja Lepp (32nd, 28:16), Alina Inthamthirath (39th, 30:14), Emma Stade (40th, 30:15) and Merel Caminada (43rd, 36:45).
As a team, the Wolverine girls (4-8-18-22-23) were third in the girls’ team scoring with 75 points, followed by Adrian (2-16-20-21-25) with 84 and HL-O (3-10-26-31-32) with 102 points. Winning the team title in a repeat were the MCC/F Rebels (1-7-9-13-14) with 44 team points, holding off a challenge from Southwest Christian/Edgerton (5-6-11-12-17) and the team’s 51 points, good for second place.
RRC Boys 5K
Leading the were boys were a trio of all-conference runners – sophomore Ryan Blomgren (fifth, 18:49), senior Aaron Fast (seventh, 18:56) and sophomore Josiah Gardiner (ninth, 19:11). Meanwhile, Wolverine freshman Emilio Garcia de la Cruz (11th, 19:26) also ran a strong race.
Heron Lake-Okabena senior Logan Knutson, running for Southwestern United, was champ in the boys’ run, clocking the distance in 17:58. Justin Clarke of MCC/F was in second at 18:03 with teammate Isaiah Olsem fourth with 18:40. In between, in third place, was Adrian’s Brady Henning with a race time of 18:28.
The remainder of the MLA boys field included – Tommy Kraemer (15th, 20:38), Emmanuel Fentanez (16th, 20:44), Andrew Fast (21st, 21:03), Phonesaveng Xayachak (22nd, 21:06), Seth Klassen (23rd, 21:29), Micah Holmberg (24th, 21:47), Caden Swoboda (34th, 23:02), Brandon Louangsaphakdy (35th, 23:07), Dima Hanson (36th, 23:10), Ernesto Garcia de la Cruz (41st, 25:53), Hamlock Tanyavong (42nd, 26:25), Drayton Klassen (44th, 26:49) and Paxton Morin (45th, 27:52).
In the boys’ run, MCC/F, with a low score of 30 (2-4-6-8-10), also repeated as conference champions – in fact, their fifth straight title. The team also claimed five of the all-conference medals. MLA’s three all-conference runners led the boys team to a solid second with 47 points (5-7-9-11-15), while Southwestern United (1-12-14-17-21) was third with 65 and Adrian (3-18-23-24-26) finished fourth with 94 points. Southwest Christian/Edgerton was incomplete with just one runner in the varsity race.
MLA girls, boys runners in Junior High run
Three Wolverine girls ran in the 1600-meter Junior High race. Cynthia Bernal was 15th with 8:57, while Cyenna Voshage Hampel was 17th with 9:05 and Isabella Louangthilath ran to 18th with a time of 9:07.
For the boys’ 1600, Landon Boldt was the first MLA runner in, hitting the chute in eighth-place with a time of 7:23. Ben Bartsch finished 11th with 7:46 and Thavien Xayachak was 12th with 7:54.
