MN XC 2025 thread

Really good performance from the Wayzata crew here. Interesting to note the significant negative split in the last lap for most boys, could be smart racing or suggest they were capable of a little bit more which bodes well for them. Interesting to note that Thomas Berndt was the top 2 miler, even though he ran the 800 and 4x4 priamarily during this past track season with a couple 1600's aswell. It'll be interesting to see how their depth in the 9:50's compares to other teams who have 2-3 people faster than their top time of 9:35 but perhaps doesn't have the depth in the 9:40-50 range. Early season showing this is very strong

Ben kraus your rolled

Lakeville Applejack:

Ohe wins and Edina wins as a team over Woodbury.

Was looking at the boys results from last night races and a couple things stood out:

Rosemount wins the Mayo Invite impressively over Stillwater and Eastview who are both ranked ahead of them. Channing Goodwin and Abram Anderson, both from Rosemount, take the top 2 spots with Maxwell Popp from White bear Lake setting a new PR and coming in 3rd.

Edina wins the Applejack Invite beating Woodbury who is ranked ahead of them. Congrats to Sander Ohe for winning individual honors and impressive race by Lliam Merrill from Burnsville who took second and beat a ranked runner.

Connor Heltemes wins the Wildcat Invite and leads Chanhassen to the team title. Nathan Essler a 10th grader from Mankato East is the runner up with Freshman Eli Baty from Mankato East taking 3rd and setting a new PR. Impressive race by that Freshman.

Speaking of Freshman, Ryder Mold from St Francis wins the Saints Invite and Anoka easily takes the Team title.

Lucky Lindy:

Deutz won individually.

Perham won as a team and was led by a freshman and a sophomore

At the Irish invite, Rosemount’s 4th and 5th runners were pretty far back. At Mayo, the 1-5 gap was reduced to 35 seconds.

Section 8AAA preview:

Alexandria wins.

Close battle between Bemidji, Brainerd, and STMA for second. Not too far behind Alexandria either.

Winona grad

milesplit.com

Track-ish: Garrett Heath Answers Brooks XC Champs Questions

Joshua Potts

Garrett Heath joins Track-Ish to share Brooks’ vision for the new XC nationals replacing Foot Locker’s storied meet.

Link:www.milesplit.com/articles/384489/trac...

Couple takeaways from this race:

1) Owen Stuwe once again showing he's the clear #2 in the whole state. Dominant win wire to wire against some solid competition in Capistrant and Hallen. Time aside (course was a little long according to people on site) the manner in which he won this race merits him being the clear second favorite for the state title.

2) Wayzata once again showing why they're the heavy favorites for the team title, putting up an impressive 60 points against highly ranked teams such as Two Rivers, Roseville, Minnetonka, and Mounds View. All their guys were clumped from the 7-24 mark with even more beyond the 5 in the 30's. This incredible depth and quality definitely solidifies them as clear favorites in November

3) Highly ranked teams performing worse here compared to their lower ranked counterparts. Most notably, Two Rivers not performing great at all placing 6th, although they were missing a key runner in Dahlager. If you adjust for Dahlager being in (and you place him right next to teammate Niah Fernandes) they still only place around 5th (adjusted for Minnetonka having Fries at #1). Unsure if Roseville was missing any key personnel but still barely edging out a Fries-less tonka (and losing to them with Fries) is unexpected considering their highly ranked status. Kudos to Minnetonka (who would've placed 3rd had Fries competed and won) who fight back against their relatively low ranking of 7 with a decent performance today. Kraus and Norstrom stepping up in the absence of Fries placing 12th and 19th respectively could suggest a powerful top 3 that if given a solid 4 and 5 has a definite chance at podiuming. Mounds View also overperforming their 10th place ranking, beating out Roseville and Two Rivers big props to them. Performers of the day has to go to Blaine though, who get a comfortable second place only 24 points behind Wayzata. Highly ranked in the preseason but moved to unranked as of last week they prove why they had high expectations, with outstanding performances from Burroughs, Meberg, and Sulungain. This puts them as my favorite contenders against Wayzata with their 4-5 close to each other running 16:50. Could see Minnetonka challenging them in the future with their strong 3 but need more consistency and quality from their 4-5 to beat out the Bengals who look really strong.

Overall fantastic meet facilitated by TC Running Company great atmosphere and setup so big shoutout to them aswell.

Luther All American Invitational:

Washburn 3rd

La/Rp/H 5th

Jefferson 7th (Young was not racing)

Blaine had Burroughs back who had a great track season and a great race last night. Just shows that MN coaches rankings were an overreact to early meets. They should be squarely in the hunt for the state title

My rankings right now for what it’s worth (Class AAA coach’s perspective)

1. Wayzata (still no true low stick but top 5 is like 25 secs apart)

2. Rosemount (just based off their win at the Mayo invitational and factoring the track seasons (Goodwin, Peterson and Anderson had) that’s quite a top 3

3. Blaine - they were up there with Wayzata and competed well with them- also Burroughs and the Mebergs had a nice Spring

4. Minnetonka - They have the potential to get back on the podium for a 3rd straight year - but they haven’t quite put it together yet

5. Mounds View (good young talent - have a great history of peaking late in the year)

6. Roseville - They surprised me a little - but have a solid squad

7. Two Rivers - Returning a good amount of guys from
Last season and performed well in the spring - George Dahlgher didn’t run last night even though I saw him there. But they are team that might be a wildcard

8. Eastview - been hearing around about this team more and more (they just won the applejack and Rosemount head coach Chris Harder said be on the lookout for them this year

9. Stillwater - given who they have back and program history

10. Edina - They are known for starting slow and peaking at the right time. Ohe is running great and they seem to have younger talent coming up from their middle school. Sneaky team there

Correction: Eastview finished ahead of Stillwater and behind Rosemount for a close second at the Mayo Invitational

Also could easily flop Blaine and Rosemount but giving Rosemount #2 currently based on state XC meet experience

Updated rankings. Goodwin and Anderson really should be on this over Maxwell Popp considering they beat him at Mayo.

Some of these rankings don’t make sense.

Edina should be ahead of Woodbury since Edina beat them head to head at Applejack.

Mounds View should be ahead of Roseville since Mounds View beat them head to head at Metro. It was the other way around at the Irish Invite, but Mounds View didn’t have their #3 guy there.

Blaine should be ahead of Minnetonka. Blaine still would have beaten them even if Fries raced at Metro.

Welcome to the 2025 coaches rankings. This seems to be the most accurate ranking so far besides some of the individuals missing.

From what I've heard a lot of coaches don't vote, only a handful do. We would see a fair bit more "also received votes" if more coaches voted.

Minneapolis Southwest girls team is receiving votes for AAA although they are AA now

Next week's coaches rankings will now all be based on Griak results since nearly every top team is running there.

Kinda just done with these rankings in general. Half the time they make zero sense and the other half they are just too reactionary to the previous week's results. Not saying they should get rid of them, but they have definitely lost their relevance. They are best in the preseason thinking ahead for the season, but once races start I care less about them.

Would rather give or hear predictions for upcoming big meets.

Speaking of...who has predictions for Griak? What time does Fries run? Who is the top MN boys team? 2nd best MN girls team? Any suprise teams make a big jump?

Also here is a recent Star Tribune article about the future of the state meet.

Latest rumor I heard was that Little Falls is one of the frontrunners. Not sure how that would work exactly but thats just what I heard.

varsity.startribune.com

As U prepares to close golf course, cross-country state meet's future is pondered | Strib Varsity

Joe Christensen

Coaches reeling from the pending closure of Les Bolstad Golf Course still hope to race there but are exploring other options.

Link:varsity.startribune.com/high-school-cr...