The St. Michael-Albertville girls cross country team started the season by capturing the 14-team Monticello Invitational held at Bertram Lake Regional Park Thursday, Sept. 8.
Led by sophomore Annalise Davis, who placed third individually in the 5K race, the Knights tallied 76 points ahead of team runner-up Becker, enroute to the team title.
Davis toured the tough course in a time of 19:49 as the number one Knight, followed by number two Knight, Mia Salas (11th-20:42), then Paige McAloon (18th-21:02), Kaydan Geiger (21st-21:13), Anna Belair (22nd-21:20), Megan Kucera (32nd-22:00), and Ella Windel (79th-24:54) rounding out the varsity.
The Knight girls had a clean sweep at Monticello, also winning team titles in the Girls Jr. High race and the Girls Junior Varsity race. STMA’s Mia Rooker paced the JV girls finishing runnerup individually (22:15) with Erin Hamilton (3rd-22:34).
On Thursday, Sept. 15, the Knight girls split their squad into 2 teams, one competing in Anoka and one team competing in St. Francis. The team competing at Anoka placed second among 19 varsity teams while the St. Francis contingent also earned a runnerup team finish among 9 varsity teams.
STMA girls varsity “top 7” at Anoka included: Annalise Davis (2nd-19:31), Mia Salas (8th-20:07), Erin Hamilton (25th-21:04), Megan Kucera (32nd-21:22), Belle Nyhus (48th-21:58), Gretchen Manderfeld (51st-22:05), and Naomi Peterson (54th-22:22).
In the JV race at Anoka, the Knight girls also had a team runnerup finish led by Madison Lenarz (3rd-22:08) and Mackenzie Bourgerie (5th-22:30) with “top 5” individual finishes.
At St. Francis, the Knight girls varsity was led by Paige McAloon’s 6th place individual finish in a time of 20:17, then followed by Anna Belair (11th-20:46), Kaydan Geiger (13th-20:52), Mia Rooker (14th-20:59), Anna Felt (26th-22:04), Taylor Petersen (33rd-22:25), and Claire Pelant (51st-23:17). The STMA JV girls placed 3rd as a team paced by Valerie Nagengast’s 8th place individual finish.
“Our girls put in a good summer of training and it shows here in early season, but it should also benefit the team as the season goes on. I was surprised we did as well as we did when we split our squad and earned 2 runnerup team finishes against full-strength varsity teams”, commented Coach Greeno. “Team chemistry and general conditioning are 2 things we hope to further as we move through the season”.
The varsity “top 10” will be competing in the Griak Invitational, for the first time, on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 24, at the University of Minnesota, Les Bolstad Golf Course. The meet annually attracts about 100 teams including some of the top teams in the Midwest and is run in 2 divisions with about 50 teams in each division.
“Our girls really wanted to compete in a big meet with tough competition to prepare themselves for the post season races, so we will be competing in this meet instead of Apple Valley, this year. This will be a tough challenge, but we’re glad they (the girls) wanted to do it,” commented coach Heather Strait.
The Knight girls that aren’t running in the Griak will have competed in the Chisago Lakes Invitational in both varsity and JV divisions Tuesday, Sept. 20, at Chi-Ki-Saga County Park.
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STMA cross country girls off to strong start
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