Varsity girls run strong; Junior High girls, boys are team champs
With a 1-4-9-13-23 finish, the Mountain Lake Area (MLA) Wolverine varsity boys squad claimed the team title at yesterday’s (Thursday, September 21) Jackson Invitational Cross Country Meet with 50 points.
Winning the 5000-meter run on a hot and steamy day was Nathan Runck, clocking in at the finish with a time of 17:17. Additional team scores included Dalton Piotter, 4th at 18:02; Ryan Blomgren, 9th with 18:38; Emilio Garcia de la Cruz, 12th with 18:58 and Josiah Gardiner, 23rd at 20:04.
Other varsity runners were:
- Emmanuel Fentanez – 24th, 20:09.
- Bubba Xayachak – 47th, 22:03.
- Logan Pankonin – 51st, 22:36.
- Seth Klassen – 57th, 22:59.
- Paxton Morin – 70th, 24:09.
- Brandon Louangsaphakdy – 73rd, 25:31
- Daniel Gardiner – 79th, 27:14.
- Robert Gonzalez – 83rd, 29:51.
“For the Wolverine boys, Nathan Runck looked strong and won his third meet of the season, Head Coach Kyle Blomgren reports. “We had huge races by our top six guys to knock off very tough Worthington and Martin County West (MCW) teams. Dalton Piotter, Ryan Blomgren and Emilio Garcia de la Cruz all matched up very well with the Worthington guys. Josiah Gardiner and Emmanuel Fentanez also finished in the top 25. Dalton, especially, worked hard in the last mile to get in front of and hold off Worthington’s top two runners.”
For the girls varsity 5K, Head Coach Blomgren notes, “The girls varsity had very solid races run by Kate Janzen, Anika Fast, Sara Quiring and Aura Spry. All of our girls were affected by the heat, but they were all able to refocus and finish hard. Our kids have been racing and working very hard, and it was good to see they had the mental toughness to overcome tired legs and a very uncomfortable day to race.”
First varsity runner into the chute was Kate Janzen, ending in 22nd with a time of 25:06. Meanwhile, Anika Fast finished 28th with 25:53, Sara Quiring was 37th at 27:16; Aura Spry ended in 40th with 27:38 and Jordan Wright was 44th at 28:24.
Rounding out the varsity girls runners were:
- Jorja Lepp – 52nd, 29:37.
- Summer Janzen – 56th, 30:49.
- Emma Stade – 58th, 36:14.
Next up for the Wolverine runners is the St. James Invitational on Tuesday, September 26, beginning at 4:30 p.m.
Junior High girls, boys 1600-meter runs
Both the boy and girls junior high teams were champion teams in the 1600-meter race.
A first-place finish from Mercedes Saengosoth in the girls run with a time of 6:19 paced the MLA squad to the title. Tiegan Meyer was 4th with 6:35, Olivia Klassen finished 11th at 7:15, Shyann Ober ended in 13th with 7:21 and Riley Schroeder was 14th with 7:24.
Additional Wolverine junior high girls runners taking to the Jackson course were not far behind, and included:
- Cyenna Voshage Hampel – 16th, 7:39.
- Sierra Perkins – 17th, 7:47.
- Isabella Louangthilath – 23rd, 8:50.
- Kaiya Sayavong – 24th, 9:17.
Drayton Klassen was the first runner in for the Wolverine junior high boys, coming in 3rd with a time of 5:49. The four remaining top five runners for MLA included Caden Swoboda, 7th, 5:58; Ben Bartsch, 8th, 6:02; Thavien Xayachak, 16th, 6:28 and Landon Boldt, 20th, 6:35.
Rounding out the junior high boys runners were:
- Luke Klassen – 21st, 6:37.
- Andrew Rasavong – 26th, 6:51.
- Chandlor Phoulom – 28th, 6:54.
- Chad Suderman – 30th, 6:57.
- Mark Quiring – 32nd, 7:04.
- Ian Penner – 33rd, 7:07.
- Aiden Penner – 47th, 8:40.
- Landon Morin – 49th, 8:53.
