Tommy Kraemer, Aaron Fast, Liana Blomgren earn All-Conference honors
In their respective varsity races, a pair of Wolverine boys – Tommy Kraemer and Aaron Fast – and one MLA girl – Liana Blomgren – earned All-Conference honors by placing in the Top 10.
MLA junior Kraemer was the first Wolverine harrier into the chute in the boys’ run, finishing seventh with 19:26, directly followed by his junior teammate, Aaron Fast, eighth with a 5,000-meter time of 19:28. Freshman Ryan Blomgren ran to an 11th-place spot out of the 44 runners, clocked at 19:32, just shy of All-Conference. MLA senior Ryan McCue was 15th with a time of 20:37 and Andrew Fast finished in 17th.
Winning the boys conference championship in a repeat performance was MCC/F senior Jack Erickson, clocked in at 17:29.
MLA boys finished second as a team in the boys’ meet with a score of 53 (6-7-10-14-16), while the winning Rebels tallied 26 points (1-3-5-8-9). Heron Lake-Okabena (2-13-19-20-23) was third with 77 points and Adrian was fourth with its score of 88 (4-15-21-22-26). Southwest Christian/Edgerton was incomplete, but senior Dillon Mulske did finish fourth overall with a time of 18:46. (Mulske’s placing was not counted in the team scoring, so runners coming in after him – including MLA’s Kraemer, Aaron Fast, Blomgren and Andrew Fast – were moved up in the team scoring.
In the girls’ race, MLA junior Liana Blomgren ran to a ninth-place finish with a time of 23:41. This performance was Blomgren’s fifth consecutive all-conference honor.
Heron Lake-Okabena (HL-O) sophomore Rachel Salentiny won the individual title with a 5,000-meter time of 21:12, just nipping seventh-grader Morgan Gehl of MCC/F, who finished at 21:13.
The Rebels (2-6-12-14-17) claimed the championship trophy with their score of 51, edging HL-O’s (1-4-5-21-22) final team count of 53. Southwest Christian/Edgerton was third with 57 points (3-8-11-16-19), Adrian ended in fourth, scoring 65 team points and MLA was fifth with a score of 121.
Next up for the harriers is the Section 3A Meet at Madison on Thursday, October 29, beginning at 4 p.m. The Minnesota State Class A Meet will be held at St. Olaf in Northfield on Saturday, November 7, starting gun time at 1 p.m.
Cross country Co-Coaches are Matt Anderson and Kyle Blomgren.
