Led by Annalise Davis and Lizzy Heil, who went 1-2 at the STMA Invitational cross country meet, the STMA varsity girls edged Anoka in the STMA Invitational cross country meet, Tuesday, Oct. 6, at the St. Michael Rec. Center.
The STMA girls beat Anoka by a score of 35-38 for the title. Maple Grove was third as a team with 76, followed by Apple Valley-104, Howard Lake-Waverly-127, Rogers-155, and Cooper-incomplete.
STMA’s Annalise Davis established a course and school-record for the 5K as she ran it in 18 minutes 28 seconds, edging Lizzy Heil (18:29) in a photo finish. Senior McKenna Rogers was the third STMA runner (8th place, 20:12), followed by Mia Salas (13th-20:29), Paige McAloon (14th-20:29), Megan Kucera (19th-20:48),
Kaydan Geiger (20th-20:52), Belle Nyhus (23rd-21:06), Brooke Johnson (25th-21:17), Glafira Mustyatsa (30th-21:41)
Katie Zachman (31st-21:57), and Anna Felt (39th-22:35).
Senior Emily Ruhland led the STMA JV girls to the team title by winning the individual title in the girls JV race. Ruhland toured the 5K course in 22:46 for her winning effort.
The STMA girls made a clean sweep as the Jr. High girls also won the team title, led by 8th grader Anna Belair’s individual title.
Senior Jackson Connelly’s 4th place individual finish led the Knight boys to a 3rd place team finish.
Connelly had a personal time of 16:34 for the 5K. Maple Grove won the team title, for the boys with 41 points, followed by Apple Valley-69, STMA-70, Anoka-104, Howard Lake-Waverly-124, Cooper-149, and Rogers-178.
Freshman Jonah Breuer was the Knight’s number two runner placing 12th in a time of 16:59, followed by Lukas Layton (15th-17:19), Alex Wolseth (16th-17:19), Joey Herbst (23rd-17:44), Carter Knaus (24th-17:44),
Joe Salonek (25th-17:52), Brian Colgrove (38th-18:27), Jeremy Backman (39th-18:27), Jeff Geiger (40th-18:30),
Ethan Cornell (43rd-18:36), and Michael Youngblom (44th-18:37).
Wyatt Bice led the boys JV team to a 4th place team finish by placing 8th individually in a time of 18:53.
The Knights next compete in the Mississippi-8 Conference Meet at Isanti Middle School. JV races start at 3:40 PM, with Boys varsity at 4:40 PM and girls varsity starting at 5:15 PM. The Knights will be attempting to defend their Conference titles in both the boys and the girls from a season ago.