Winding down their regular season, the Loyola/Cleveland/St. Clair cross country teams are peaking they need to, and that will make for a competitive sprint to the state meet, said head coach Casey Olson.
“The kids are hitting their stride at the right time, and both sections and state opponents seem to be doing the same, so it'll be an exciting end to the season, and we'll have fun mixing it up with the best over the coming few weeks.”
On Tuesday, the Crusaders, coming off a meet in Sleepy Eye five days prior, competed in the Blackhawk Invitational on the Madelia Golf Course.
With both the boys and girls teams emerging as champions, it was business as usual for the Crusaders.
“It was another week and another positive result that we just seem to keep stacking,” Olson said.
Griffin Rutz, 14 seconds behind the winner of the varsity boys race, finished in the silver slot with a 17:21. Among the 57 competitors, Reece Nelson was fourth (17:37), Rollie Matejcek was ninth (18:24.0), Jack Green was 13th (18:47.0). Once again, Luke Kortuem cracked into the Crusader top five with a 18:51 finish for 13th place.
Also for the Crusaders, Luke Phillips was 26th (20:10 PR), Jackson Bilitz was 28th (20:26), Ethan Beenken was 39th (21:17.0), Andrew Bales was 51st (23:43.0), and Bryce Monson was 55th (26:39 PR). Anthony McCabe didn’t run.
“Griffin, Reece and Luke, all near their PRs, continue to impress in the scoring five for the team,” Olson said.
With 40 points, the Crusaders were 19 points ahead of second place Minnesota Valley Lutheran. Martin County West/Butterfield Odin was third with 86 points. Rounding out the field were Madelia (88 points), Sleepy Eye St Mary’s/Sleepy Eye Public/New Ulm Cathedral (90) points and Maple River (143 points).
On the girls side, the Crusaders totaled 23 points. Maple River took second with 44 points, and MVL was third with 64 points.
Typical frontrunner Charlotte Meyer was off for the girls race—as was teammate Harper Rutz—but Lila Quast was second among the field of 43 with a 19:41 finish. Riley Quigley was fourth (20:16), Gisele McCabe was fifth (20:38.0), Brooks Waagner was sixth (20:54), and Maddy Seiwert was 12th (22:47.0).
Charlotte Kirschner was 17th (23:54), Reese Mueller was 20th (24:09), Lea Taylor was 31st (26:12), and Aubryn Siebert was 43 (33:44).
In the junior high boys 2500-m, Reid Johnson’s PR 10:40 was good for a silver. Three seconds behind, Jase Blaschko took third. Jennings Hatanpa directly followed with a 10:57. Earning his first award, Parker Stoffel was ninth with a 12:18.0. There were 11 competing.
On the JH girls side, Quinn Vidden finished in 11:52 for second place among the field of four.
“Madelia is a fun course that is challenging but runs pretty fast,” Olson said. “I always like this meet because it's the last one before the championship races begin, and it gives us a good measuring stick to see where we stand 10 days out. We saw most of the conference opponents here, and this year's conference meet (this Thursday, October 22) will be on this same course, so coming away with team victories on both sides is an encouraging result.”
Almost all the Crusaders ran faster times today than at this meet last year, Olson said.
“We'll just continue to trust in our training because we saw how much faster we can get over the last three weeks during last season. I was impressed by the competitiveness of the team today. We emphasized not giving up at any point in the race, and they really pushed themselves all the way through the finish line.”
Sleepy Eye, October 8
At Sleepy Eye’s Eagles Park, the Crusader girls team took first place while the boys team, despite the first five all running a personal best, finished a point behind the winner for second place.
On the girls side, the Crusaders had 19 points. Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey was second with 67 points, one fewer than third place Springfield/Cedar Mountain. MVL was fourth with 97 points, and LCWM/Nicollet was fifth with 124 points.
Back in action after resting a sore knee, Meyer didn’t put the pedal to the medal but still won the race with a 19:39.8 finish, 12.1 seconds faster than the second-place runner. McCabe took third with a personal record 19:57.2, Quigley was fourth with a 20:00, Quast was fifth with a 20:15.4, and Waagner was sixth with a 20:38.3. There were 61 in the field.
Running in a pack was by design, said Olson.
“We wanted to practice racing together and using our teammates for support, especially given that the strength of our varsity teams lies in how closely together our packs can finish. If we can utilize the team aspect of cross country more, it will make us really tough to beat at the end of the season. I thought they did really well at this and we're going to continue working together to power through the toughest parts of the race.”
Also for the Crusader girls, Kaitlyn Anderson was eighth (21:14.1), Lily Phillips was 21st (23:32.7), Mueller was 22nd (23:35.7), Kirschner was 26th (24:03.8), Rutz was 61st (34.20.7), and Siebert was 62nd (37:49.0).
With 44 points, one better than the Crusaders, Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey was the boys team champion. MVL was third (62), SESM/SE/NUC was fourth (103), LCWM/Nicollet was fifth (120), Lester Prairie was sixth (169), and Springfield/Cedar Mountain was seventh (170).
In the field of 66, Griffin Rutz ran a 17:16.8, a 2-second PR. The winning time was a blistering 16:46.1. Nelson was fifth (17:20.9 for a PR by 36 seconds), Matejcek was sixth (17:31.9 PR), Kortuem was 15th (18:37.4 for a PR by 45 seconds), and Green was 16th (18:38.3 PR).
Also for the Crusaders, Phillips was 32nd (20:22.0), Beenken was 48th (21:41.5), Bales was 53rd (23:03.2 PR), McCabe was 56th (23:33.4 PR), and Monson was 64th (26:40.3).
In the junior high girls 1600, Vidden’s 7:13.7 was good for eighth place in a field of 15. The winning time was 6:10.
In the junior high boys 1600, Johnson flipped on the turbo for a 6:19.4 third-place finish. By mile, it was a 36-second PR. Hatanpa was fifth with a 6:19.8, The winning time among the 20 runners was 5:38.5. Stoffel was 17th with a PR 7:59.3 (26 seconds faster per mile).
The course was not on the typical golf course and occasionally had the runners on pavement.
“Sleepy Eye is a fun experience for the athletes because it's a different course than we're used to seeing,” Olson said. “We run on the bike trail around the lake, which generally makes for fast times. It's pretty exposed, so if the sun is beating down it can be quite warm, but it was relatively mild for the race, and that made for some really good conditions.”
Above: Griffin Rutz and Reece Nelson run on the bike trail in Sleepy Eye.
Luke Kortuem runs through a Sleepy Eye neighborhood on the bike trail.
Anthony McCabe in the Sleepy Eye race.
Parker Stoffel (left) and Reid Johnson (center) in the junior high winners circle at Sleepy Eye.
The Crusader girls pose for a photo in Sleepy Eye.
All photos courtesy of Bree Meyer.