Both odds-on favorites, Charlotte Meyer for the Crusader girls and Soren Kelly for the Crusader boys finished as expected when they won their respective races at the season opening, Tomahawk-Valley Conference cross country meet held on Loyola Hill on Friday.
Teamwise, the girls won their meet while the boys were second in theirs.
“We’re really on both sides happy with the results,” said Casey Olson, who, as head coach this year, switched places with Landon Javens, who is now the assistant coach. “I saw a lot of our runners just challenging themselves, pushing themselves really hard, and that was my goal for their the last 400 meters, to have them push themselves to the finish line, to be tough when they didn’t think they could be.”
The Crusaders were coming off a two-night team bonding camp in Janesville earlier in the week, an outing that took a hiatus for a few years after 2020 but started up again a couple of years ago.
“We have a lot of fun team bonding activities,” Olson said. “We have challenges that are related to running: a plank challenge, a pushup contest, and a bunch of challenges that aren’t related to running too. The big goal is having some fun with our teammates before school starts, especially because we have four schools (Loyola, Cleveland, St. Clair and first year Mankato Christian Academy) now that are running together.
Meyer crossed the finish line in 19:14.5. There were 40 competing. At the conference meet on the hill late last season, she was over a minute and a half faster.
“It was pretty slow,” she said. “It was really hot, and it’s the first meet of the season, so we're not going to be very fast.”
Teammate Valerie Quast, a senior, was second with a 19:35.3, so it was the same top-two placing the Crusaders had in their 15th place showing at the state meet last fall.
Rounding out the Crusader top five, freshman Lila Quast, in her first race as a Crusader, was third with a 22:04.3. Freshman Maddy Siewert, also in her rookie year and representing Mankato Christian Academy, was seventh with a 22:26.1, and freshman Gisele McCabe, who was sixth for the Crusaders at state in 2024, was 12th with a 23:17.8.
Poking at the front five, sophomore Charlotte Kirschner was 15th with a 23:55.3, senior Molly Koester, who came in third for the Crusaders at state last year, was 16th with a 24:24.6, sophomore Lily Phillips was 24th with a 26:36.0, and senior Teya Waagner, who was seventh for the Crusaders at state last year, was 28th with a 27:23.1.
Nursing a toe injury, freshman Harper Rutz was cheering on her teammates from the sidelines. Junior Kate Daley, who was fourth for the Crusaders at state last fall, also sat the race out. Izzy Endres, who was fifth for the Crusaders at state in 2025, is not on the team this year.
“We have a lot of newcomers, especially on the girls team,” Olson said, “so it was nice to get to see how they raced a little bit and where they fit in the team. We have a lot of uncertainty because we lost a lot of talent on the boys side, and we have a deep girls team. It’s going to take a while to sort out who is going to be in our top ten.”
With 26 points, the Crusaders ran away with the race. Springfield was second with a 59, Minnesota Valley Lutheran was third with a 65, and Wabasso took fourth with a 90.
Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s/Sleepy Eye Public, GFW and Martin County West/Butterfield-Odin fielded runners, but not enough to make a team.
None of the other 67 runners were in earshot of Kelly, who finished the race in 16:29.4.
Teammate Mitchell Buboltz, also a senior, was third with a 17:58.8. Rounding out the Loyola/Cleveland/St. Clair/Mankato Christian School top five were sophomore Rollie Matejcek in 15th place (20:05.2), senior Andrew Tieva in 18th place (20:40.6) and sophomore Jackson Bilitz in 21st place (20:58.9)
Prodding their Crusaders teammates were freshman Reece Nelson in 23rd place (21:10.5), freshman Luke Kortuem in 25th place (21:15.3), junior Jack Green in 28th place (21:32.5), senior Elijah Mons in 53rd place (25:20.1) and sophomore Jax Leagjeld in 64th place (28:34.3).
With 47 points, MVL bested the Crusaders by just four points to win the team competition. Madelia was third with a 75, Sleepy Eye Schools was fourth with a 76, and Springfield was fifth with a 105. GFW, Wabasso and MCW/BO also fielded runners.
While the Crusaders lost three of their top five finishers from their 12th place finish at state last year, Kyle Zimmerman, Sam Vetter and TJ Waldron—as well as Chase Kijenski, who was sixth among the Crusaders at state—they return seniors Kelley and Mitchell Buboltz, who was fifth for the Crusaders in the 2024 state meet.
In the junior high 1.8 km (1.12 mile) race, seventh grader Griffin Rutz was second with a 6:21.7 finish. His teammate Francis Bierer, an eighth grader, won the race with a 6:02.8 finish.
Seventh grader Luke Phillips was seventh (6:42.0), eighth grader Ethan Beenken was eighth (6:49.0), eighth grader Andrew Bales was 11th (7:20.08) and seventh grader Jase Blaschko was 16th (8:34.1). There were 18 competing.
The junior high girls ran the 1.8 km along with the boys. Crusader seventh grader Brooks Waagner won the race with a 6:53.8 finish. Her teammate, Eden Koester, an eighth grader, was fifth with an 8:34.2, and junior Ella Holub was eighth with a 9:50.5. Ten runners competed.
The Crusaders will host a two-mile fun run on the Hill against the alumni on Saturday, August 30 and then compete in the huge TCU-hosted Gerry Smith Invitational meet at the Montgomery National Golf Course on Thursday, September 4.
Above: Charlotte Meyer makes her way along the path through the tall prairie grass on Loyola Hill.
