With 38 points, 94 better than second place Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey, the Charlotte Meyer and the Crusader girls ran away with the Section 2A cross country meet, held at the Norwood Young America’s Baylor Park on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Griffin Rutz’s PR 16.47.7 earned him a state qualifying seventh place.
“The girls showed up and did exactly what we needed to do,” said head coach Casey Olson. “They ran hard and they ran together. It's not an easy thing to come back and continue to defend the title when you're the team everyone wants to beat, but the girls showed up all season and continued to push themselves and each other.”
Meyer, still recovering from an injury, finished the race in 18:24.6 for second place. The winning time, posted by her Maple River rival, was 12 seconds faster. There were 102 runners competing.
“Charlotte's will is never beaten even when she has other things slowing her down,” said Olson. “Despite all the adversity she's faced this year, she was in the race against another top-five individual in the state, which is always an impressive feat regardless of past performances.”
Lila Quast was sixth with a 19:42.7, Riley Quigley was ninth with a PR 19:56.7, Gisele McCabe was 11th with a 20:13.7, and Kaitlyn Anderson was 14th with a PR 20:19.9.
Prodding them were Brooks Waagner in 17th place with a 20:43.5 and Lily Phillips with a season best 21:46.8. As a junior, Phillips is the oldest member on the Crusader team.
“We'll be excited to be back at the State meet for the fourth consecutive year and doing so as the section champions for the third consecutive season.” Olson said. “Looking ahead, the state meet will be an incredible experience. It seems like every qualifying team is better than they were last year, and there are at least 10 schools I could see making a push for the top, which will make for an extremely exciting race. I think we've got as good a shot as anybody at the title, and we're going to give it everything we have. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the girls approach the challenge.”
The top two teams advance to state, but the Crusader boys, in third place, missed out by a large margin. Sibley East won the meet with a 33. Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey was second with a 93, 44 points better than the Crusaders.
“Griffin ran the race plan to a T and found a way to dig deep when it mattered most,” Olson said. “He's really had a stellar second half to the season and emerged as a true contender. and it's been great to see that development. Griffin's chances were a true toss-up because all of these runners had beaten each other at various points throughout the season. Like with any young runner at his level, each of these championship races are going to be very important and helpful experiences so it was great to see him figure it out against more experienced racers.”
After Rutz, Reece Nelson was 19th with a 17:23.6, just 5 seconds away from a PR, Rollie Matejcek was 28th with a 17:50.4, Luke Kortuem was 37th with a 0.4 second PR 18:37.0, and Jack Green, the only senior on the team, finished in 49th place with a 19:00.4.
Both Nelson and Kortuem had a stellar year and capped them off with good races at sections,” Olson said.
“Reece put in over 200 miles this summer and really deserved his spot as one of the top runners in the section,” Olson said. “Luke came on strong in the second half when it became clear that someone needed to step up to give us a shot. He took that challenge and ran with it, both literally and figuratively. I'm sure both of them were hoping for a little more, but we can't be mad with over a minute and a half of improvement for each of them. It's really tough to see any more time come off in one year than that, so we'll acknowledge this as a really special year for both of them and look forward to seeing how much more can come off next year.”
Pushing at the Crusader front five were Jackson Bilitz in 61st place with a 19:31.2 and Luke Phillips, who was directly behind Bilitz, with a 19:31.5. The winning time among the 126 runners was a blazing course record 15:30.3.
As it was a rebuilding year for the boys, who qualified for the state meet last year, the Crusaders knew they would be facing an uphill climb, but it didn’t daunt them, Olson said.
“We had several boys work hard in the offseason, and we made a closer run towards state than maybe we would've been projected at the end of last season, considering what we lost from last year.”
Rebuilding is the Crusaders’ MO, Olson said.
“Over the last two years, we've lost four of the top seven each year, but the culture these boys have created means that there's always someone ready to step up when the team needs it, and we saw that again this year. We can't control what other teams do, and even though we weren't as close to second place as we'd hoped we would be, I could see the team meeting the moment and winning their groups, which was ultimately the difference between third and fifth. This makes 11-straight years in the top three at the section meet, so I hope the boys are proud of themselves and the efforts they put in this season because it was a fun season and they did everything they could.”
Also at the meet, Olson was named the Section 2A girls Coach of the Year while his assistant Sean Pickle was named both the boys and girls Assistant Coach of the Year.
The state meet, which will be held on Saturday (November 7), has a new venue this year: Majestic Oaks Golf Club, Ham Lake, MN. The Class A girls race starts at 12:15 p.m. while the boys race starts at 1:00 p.m.
Above: The Crusader girls with their medals and section trophy, from L-R: Kaitlyn Anderson, Charlotte Meyer, Lila Quast, Brooks Waagner, Riley Quigley, Gisele McCabe, Lily Phillips, Charlotte Kirschner and Reese Mueller.
Charlotte Meyer finishes an uphill climb. Ahead of her is Maple River's Sophia Stencel, the eventual winner.
Griffin Rutz’s seventh place got him a spot in the state meet.
Reece Nelson (left) was second among the Crusaders.
Luke Kortuem set a new PR at the meet.
Charlotte Meyer receives her silver medal. Putting it on her is Keegan Oak, activities director at NYA.
Griffin Rutz receives his state qualifying medal.
Griffin Rutz and the rest of the Crusader boys.
Casey Olson was named the Section 2A girls team coach of the year while his assistant Sean Pickle was named both the boys and girls assistant coach of the year.
All the Crusaders who made the trip to Baylor Park.