MN XC 2025 thread

Lots of conference meets today.

Some highlights:

Suburban East: Stillwater won the conference. Mounds View 3rd, but they were missing one of their top 3 runners (Miller). Roseville 2nd.

Three Rivers Conference: LA/RP/H beat Cotter by a few points. LA/RP/H looks deep. Cotter has a strong 1-2-3, but their 4&5 are way behind them which is what’s hurting their chances of winning Class A state.

Metro West: Very tight battle between Chan, Orono, and Jefferson. Chan came away with the win. With Jefferson not being far off, there are still chances for them to pull off one last state berth with the senior class that they have.

Stillwater had a freshman go 15:59. Athletic.net has this listed as the 2nd fastest freshman they've ever had.

Big results for Two Rivers out at Metro East. This is the Two Rivers team we expected to start the year.

Gallagher, who has only raced minimally this year, ran well. Sophomore Max Molinaro raced very well for the win. He was in my pre-season top 10 after a phenomenal freshman track season. Looking at his results I have a suspicion‐-based on pure speculation looking at his track and xc results and the very few runs on his public strava--that he was intentionally holding back every race until now. Maybe he was hurt or sick and gaining fitness, but I really doubt it given his races, runs, and results so far. Anyone have more info?

If true, that is a bold and interesting strategy for a young runner, we'll see how it plays out for him at state. Especially against other top runners who have refined and learned racing strategies during the season as they competed against those that they will see at state. Will it be a blueprint for future young phenoms to follow or a strategy to shelve? I have a feeling Heltemes has the upper hand due to his experience. Time will tell soon.

These results do seem to be quite good for Two Rivers. However, this course is known to be extremely quick with everyone here running pretty big pr's or seasons best. This could be due to runners peaking or gaining fitness from previous meets, aswell the drop in the weather, but if I were to guess it mostly comes down to the course. We've all seen their performances this season and their struggles at the hillier courses, which the state meet will be at. Aside from that pretty good showing here and hoping its not all down to the course as they could have a shot at mixing up the battle for podium and title. Pretty impressive from Molinaro who seems to finally be living up to this 9:25 he ran in track, not sure he was "intentionally holding back" the last few meets or that it'll be a blueprint for others to follow, probably just adapting to tougher nature of cross country.

Two Rivers ran their full lineup and had 4 guys under 16:13, with their 5th runner a little far back (16:41)

The guy who got third here(15:51) seems to have started running during track.

Course was short. In the girls race the top 50 ran PR’s. Boys race had similar percentage of the top 30.

Big 9 conference:

Close race between Owatonna, Rochester John Marshall, and Mankato East for the title.

Owatonna wins by 1 point. Their top runner who ran a 16:02 here was running in the 19s prior to this year. Gonna be hard for them to take down Farmington and Lakeville North though.

Mankato East’s Clobes is back, and it looks like the gap behind their #4 is closing.

Not a Minnesotan, but Will Lauer from Sioux Falls Lincoln went there. Senior year he took 2nd at NXR and led SFL to their first ever NXN appearance

Looks like Class A has quit doing rankings.

@IceCold could you do an in depth class A preview?

St Paul Como Park wins conference with a 16:20 average.

Their 4-5 gap is larger than Perham’s, so Perham still has an advantage and is currently the favorite to win Class AA.

Finally starting to dig into conference results. Below are some quick thoughts. Sorry if I am repeating what others have said, but I purposely wrote out these thoughts before looking at anyone's posts here.

• Northfield girls crush at Big 9, beating #4/#8 ranked Winona/Man East. They had 2 8th graders go 18:44/20:00.
  
• Unranked Alex girls with 8 under 20:15
  
• Alex and Brainerd boys within 1, fun Section 8AAA with them and STMA/Bemidji
  
• Two Rivers with 4 under 16:12 and 5th at 16:41. Fast course, looking at last year their guys averaged 30 sec slower at state
  
• Tight one at Metro West with Chan, Orono, and Jefferson within 3 points. Another fast course. Chan's top 4 all coming back next year.
  
• Even on the fast course, Waconia girls put 8 at 19:32 or faster. 3 of them 7th graders. Good case for them 3rd in the state right now.
  
• Isabel Mahoney hasn't raced since 9/23- trying to find out if serious injury or not
  
• Suburban East race at Tanners Brook GC is also fast course so not caring much on times, but Stillwater winning is positive. However, MV was without their #1 in Hunter Miller and Woodbury without their #2 in Owen Riter. MV probably pulls it out if Miller is there.
  
• Bounceback Forest Lake girls race
  
• Cotter vs LARPH remains a fun one- it’s all a numbers game.
• No A rankings is disappointing but not surprising- been a consistent theme of late or poor rankings for years and won't change until there is a new ranker

I am working on some section stuff (most enticing one to watch in each class/gender) and then starting state previews soon. I'll try to get out some sort of section prediction contest this weekend too.

The top 3 boys teams at SEC (Stillwater, Roseville, and Mounds View) are all only losing one scorer next year

Apparently there’s a JV season finale starting this year.

Lefty Wright is like that too, except that race is a grade-level JV race

Section Predictions Contest!

Let's see if anyone can get 16/16 teams correct for a class/gender!

Currently 50 responses in the Class AAA section poll. Here are how the votes are divided so far!

• 1AAA- Farmington/Lakeville North split 50/50 on winning. Owatonna 3rd.
• 2AAA- Minnetonka clear #1. 4 other schools with 2nd place votes with Jefferson having the most.
• 3AAA- Rosemount #1 and Eastview #2. Eagan 3rd.
• 4AAA- Two Rivers #1 and Stillwater #2. Woodbury has a few votes too for 3rd. How isn't Stillwater ranked?!
• 5AAA- Mounds View #1 and Roseville #2. CP has a few votes too.
• 6AAA- Wayzata #1 and Edina a little over Washburn for #2. How is Edina not ranked?!
• 7AAA- Blaine #1 and Duluth East #2. Handful of votes for Forest Lake, Andover, and Anoka too.
• 8AAA- Most divided section up top. STMA has most votes for #1. Alex, Brainerd, and Moorhead split for #2.

I am most interested in 4AAA. Two Rivers is favorite but has been inconsistent this season, Stillwater unranked and Woodbury is lurking. 6AAA is a battle for 2nd between Edina and Washburn. Would be surprised if Edina doesn't make it- they peak well and showed up at Griak. 8AAA will also be good since it is all tight.

My non-obvious predictions: I'll take Chanhassen over Jefferson, Two Rivers/Stillwater over Woodbury, Edina over Washburn, I would take Anoka if Peterson was healthy but without him I'll go East, and my biggest upset is Alexandria and Brainerd over STMA/Moorhead.

Stillwater is ranked now at 10th behind Two Rivers who is at 4.