MN XC 2025 thread

Other section today is 4A. Got 26 total responses in the Class A contest.

Heritage and Nova boys are heavy favorites. Would be shocked if one of them didn't qualify.

Providence and Trinity/Unity girls are also heavy favorites with Heritage clear #3.

Looking at weather, gonna be a chilly day and week!

Live results for 2AAA, boys first at 4:40pm

My apologies 3:40pm

Minnetonka and Chanhassen, looks like top 12 placers all going to state

***Minnetonka and Bloomington Jefferson

Looks like Jefferson’s 4th and 5th runners moved up a lot of places in the last 1.8k, after Chanhassen being in second

Waconia girls team made state for the first time in a while, after barely missing it last year

Minnetonka and Jefferson both qualified for state 5 times in a row. Jefferson’s varsity is a “senior-only” team so this is the last year (at least for a while) that they are competitive.

Chanhassen returns everyone except for their 5th man. They will need to find a new 5th man to step up next year to secure a spot at the state meet.

Minnetonka, Eden Prairie, and Waconia have a good group of underclassmen and depth too.

Some awesome races today for the 2nd state spot in both boys and girls races.

First, girls. Waconia first state meet since 1999. 9 pointsbetween 2nd-4th. Prior Lake ran great. Leadership of 5 seniors and 2 juniors really shined through. Eden Prairie was unranked all year until 2 weeks ago and was so close to state. I thought Chaska would snag that last spot but not today. Tonka was farther back than expected but they did have a scorer not run which took them out of it.

Tonka boys win as expected and looks like their 4th got a little closer to their 3rd which is needed for them at state. Good for Jefferson making it with all seniors. Truly a coin flip between them and Chan here. Chan led by 10 points at the 2 mile. Jefferson’s #4/#5 runners passed combined 16 runners the final mile which was the difference. Chan’s #5 just too far back to keep their lead.

Love this time of year!

Went according to form, but the 3-5 girls teams were pretty tight. Wind coupled with light rain must've made for tough conditions!

Minnetonka's 5-7 on the boy's side were very close together, if one of them can go off at state they have a fighting chance at the title.

I really think the tough conditions today benefited the Jefferson senior heavy squad. In tough condition you usually see the more physically developed runners perform better and that is what occurred today when they made up a ton of spots in the final mile. To give it some context, Fries won at Gale Woods in a time of 14:50 just a couple weeks ago at the Lake Conference Championship and today he ran 15:26, still an exceptional time, but a full 36 seconds slower than 2 weeks ago. Minnetonka's 2nd runner Kraus was 37 seconds slower. Only Fries and Stuwe were able to break the 16:00 mark in today's race while 6 runners broke that mark 2 weeks ago on the same course. I think if conditions were better Chanhassen's young squad might have been able to pull it out, but I am happy for the Jefferson Seniors to finish their careers with a state berth.

I think this is spot-on. Many underestimate the physical and mental difference between running on a pancake twilight course in August and a cold hillier course in October. I have no issue with the faster courses but it is so different from how a lot of these section/state races end up looking.

3 section meets today. 4AAA, 4AA, and 6AAA.

4AAA is this morning with girls at 10:40 and boys 11:30.

Two Rivers, Stillwater, and Woodbury battle on the boys side. Woodbury feels like the odd one out here but should be a good one.

The girls’ race is intriguing as well. Highland Park enters as the favorite and is expected to take the win. Stillwater and White Bear Lake are projected second and third in the prediction contest, and the two have gone back and forth throughout the season—most recently with WBL edging Stillwater at conference. I'll still stick with Stillwater as my pick, but could go either way.

Stillwater girls wins and WBL 2nd...that's why you run the race. Highland Park crushed both at Meet of Champions 2 weeks ago but sections is just different!

• Stillwater 43
• WBL 54
• Highland Park 60

Two Rivers and Stillwater boys qualify as expected

Sounds like Jefferson had a game plan and executed it very well, pick off runners in that last 1+ mile. Did they lose a key runner this year that didn't run xc or was that last year a key returner didn't come out?

That was last year, Tapanja chose not to run.

If I can count correctly, Highland Park gets 4 of the 6 Individual qualifiers

St.Paul Como Park boys with a score of 17! Probably the lowest score we'll see in all three classes boys or girls.

Washburn with a 30 point lead over Edina after 1 mile