Perham boys team took second 3 times in a row. They graduate 4 seniors but do return 3 scorers (2 freshmen and 1 sophomore) and another JV season finale champion (sophomore). They just need to find a 5th-7th runner. They have lots of time to do it, and should be able to become state champions sometime in the next 2 years.
Some quick Class A thoughts looking through results:
Boys:
Cotter going 1-2-3 individually is outstanding. Last time done that I can find is in 1999 by Staples-Motley trio. Tough to do that and not have your team win..
Semling 2nd fastest time today, only behind Fries. Fastest state time ever by sophomore.
I was told Lev fell with 50m to go in the race. 3rd place at the time but still managed to get up and finish 9th.
LARPH with 67 points is lowest Class A score since 2018. 6 guys under 16:50. Team title never really in doubt.
No big team surprises. Bertha-Hewitt and GNK higher than expected. Litchfield and Nighthawks lower than expected.
Girls:
Insane going to a tiebreaker. When was last time that happened to win a state title? Hasn't happened in the last 10 years but sure it has happened before.
Cathedral in 5th at the mile and 70 points behind NLS in 1st.
Neither NLS or Cathedral had great days, which left the door for Loyola-Cleveland to get close. They were just 7 points away from winning, great run by them.
Again, no huge surprises on teams finishing order. Barnesville and Lake City higher than expected. Nighthawks and Providence a little lower.
Duffy and Brownell were together with 600m to go before Duffy pulled away.
10 Class A girls broke 19 minutes today- most in Class A race since switch to 5k in 2015.
Reasons why Como Park won the title is because they returned 4 guys under 9:50, and they have another sophomore who stepped up from last year and closed the gap. They also didn’t lose any scorers from state last year. They struggled early in the season but their 3200 times seemed to be translating to XC times better and better as the season went on.
Perham returned 5 guys but they lost B Anderson (which was huge) and another scorer Flatau.
Perham boys team took second 3 times in a row. They graduate 4 seniors but do return 3 scorers (2 freshmen and 1 sophomore) and another JV season finale champion (sophomore). They just need to find a 5th-7th runner. They have lots of time to do it, and should be able to become state champions sometime in the next 2 years.
They are already set for next year. They have 2 guys who only need to improve by 20-30 seconds(at least based on prs) to be on par with scorers from this year. And they have a few fast 8th graders who can possibly make waves next year.
Reasons why Como Park won the title is because they returned 4 guys under 9:50, and they have another sophomore who stepped up from last year and closed the gap. They also didn’t lose any scorers from state last year. They struggled early in the season but their 3200 times seemed to be translating to XC times better and better as the season went on.
Perham returned 5 guys but they lost B Anderson (which was huge) and another scorer Flatau.
I can't get over Como Park winning this. Top 5 guys all PR'ed. They were a tough team to pinpoint cause they don't run a ton of big meets. They did run well at Griak so I should have put more stock into that and trust those 3200m times rather than slower times at random meets.
Perham actually ran really well today, Como was just better and were able to hold their lead.
I saw the start didn’t really catch the end of the pack as I left to get try get over to 1k ish. I’m not exactly sure who’s who but looked like a purple/dark blue singlet went down towards the front and a few got around him but as he tried to get up ended up completely taking out tall dark haired two rivers athlete (yellow top black bottoms correct me if I’m wrong) who hit the ground pretty hard face first. I left soon after but he was on the ground for a couple of seconds before the pack thinned out I didn’t really think anyone else went down over him but that’s all I saw.
Incredibly brave run by Lev Dougherty. I saw him 5 or 6 times but not at the end and know he got the wobbles. Kudos to him for giving Erik a meaningful race. That's the kind of thing you look for as an NCAA coach and view as a positive. A safe second place would've done nothing for Lev yesterday.
Impressed with Kellen Groth and Ryan Littlefield's PRs on the state course for 2nd and 3rd. It's not an easy course to run on and Cotter is well-coached enough to know PRs aren't easy to come by there. Littlefield had a great last 1800m.
Big pack for 4th through 9th place in terms of times. Overall ~10th place finishes at Griak for boys in Class A have been similar each year, but this year it took 16:39 to make all-state (25th) versus the last two years (16:50 and 16:52). 16:52 was 42nd place yesterday, so I would consider this the strongest field we've had.
I was impressed with GNKs team's finish at 7th - much higher than I would have anticipated. Their #1/2/3 all PRed.
Big shout-out to Bertha-Hewitt, who was by far the smallest school in the field to make it to state. Their enrollment is under 150 and they finished in 6th. Clearly good coaching a great group of dedicated boys.
Girls
What a fun race at the front. Similar to the 3200m in track last spring, I thought the individual race had a true championship-style race feel to it versus a time trial. Brownell and Duffy were patient, let others do the work for half the race, and then put on a show starting around 3k. Big win for Duffy and that's got to give her confidence going into track. Duffy's last 1800 is the 3rd fastest among all classes and she was smiling the last 50m. Two different individual champions in three years for St. John's Prep.
Charlotte Meyer and Isabel Pass both raced really well as part of that front pack through about 3k before separation happened. Their future looks bright!
I honestly thought Cathedral had a fantastic result even with that tie - it's got to be heartbreaking to lose on a tie-breaker, but their #1 from sections had an off day. They moved up extremely well throughout the race and gave themselves their best chance.
Shout-out to Trinity-Unity who moved up from 16th at the mile to 7th by the end. They clearly had a great plan, knew the course, and did well with splits. Their 1-5 had the tighest overall mile 1 - mile 2 splits of the day. I personally don't think state is congested enough where you can't move up and they clearly thought the same and overperformed their ranking (7th place finish versus ranked 11th).
This was the fastest Class A girls field on the Bolstad course over the last three years. You needed 19:34 for all-state (25th) versus 19:45 and 19:55, and 18:52 for top 10 versus 19:19 and 19:30.
Fries is arguably the greatest Cross Country runner ever from MN. He now has the all-time state record for time with a 14:22 and the all-time State Course record at Lee Bolstadt with a 14:50. He also broke the St Olaf Course record and the Gale Woods course record, and there have been some amazing runners that have run on those courses as well. The only course he ran this year where he didn't break the record was Griak, but he was real close there too. I honestly believe he has a shot at winning NXN, he looks like a machine right now.
Stuwe showed all season he was the 2nd best runner in the state and proved it at the State meet. With Fries going out in 4:37 he chose not to try and stay with him and instead led the rest of the field the entire race. Stuwe finished a great High School Cross Country career making All State for three years and medaling twice, but he is overshadowed by a generational talent.
Most assumed Fries and Stuwe would go 1 and 2 so the race was seemingly for 3rd. Congrats to Tyler Flippen for running a great race taking that spot. He showed some guts staying with Stuwe the majority of the race.
Meberg ran a great race taking 4th and leading Blaine to the Championship. Also congrats to Channing Goodwin from Rosemount who ran a gutty race leading Rosemount to a top 3 finish. He was 30th at the mile mark and worked his way all the way up to 5th.
Congrats to Blaine on winning the team title beating the favorites from Wayzata. We all knew Blaine had a shot to win but winning the title by 25 points was completely unexpected! Great performance by that team and their coaches getting them ready when it matters most. Wayzata had a great year but settles for 2nd again and Rosemount also with a great year taking 3rd. Looking at who these teams graduate for Seniors, and who they have coming back next year, I feel these 3 teams will be the favorites once again next year for the team title.
One final thought on this years graduating class. The 2026 class is very top heavy on talent with Fries, and to a lesser extent Stuwe, but beyond those 2 there weren't really any seniors that stood out. At AAA after Fries and Stuwe the next 4 spots were all underclassmen. In fact only 2 of the final 8 spots that medaled at state were taken by seniors. Add to that the fact both AA and A were won by underclassmen, shows it was not the strongest year overall for seniors.
Girls
Maddie Gullickson caps off her high school career with a dominating performance. Running a PR in 16:54 and lapping the field by 37 seconds is just incredible. The gap between her and the 2nd place finisher was actually larger than the gap between Fries and the 2nd place finisher on the boys side.
Seniors Anna VanAcker and Carley LaMotte close out their High School XC careers with 2nd and 3rd place finishes. Freshmen Brynlee Wegener from Blaine taking 4th and 8th grader Mackenzie Myran taking 7th was very impressive. The battles between those 2 could be fun to watch in the coming years.
Wayzata exerts their dominance with 5 of the top 10 spots and a state meet record low of 27 points. I am excited to see how they perform on the national stage at NXN.
A tight race for 2nd place with STMA edging out Edina by 3 points and Edina edging out Forest Lake for 3rd by 4 points.
Fries is arguably the greatest Cross Country runner ever from MN. He now has the all-time state record for time with a 14:22 and the all-time State Course record at Lee Bolstadt with a 14:50. He also broke the St Olaf Course record and the Gale Woods course record, and there have been some amazing runners that have run on those courses as well. The only course he ran this year where he didn't break the record was Griak, but he was real close there too. I honestly believe he has a shot at winning NXN, he looks like a machine right now.
Stuwe showed all season he was the 2nd best runner in the state and proved it at the State meet. With Fries going out in 4:37 he chose not to try and stay with him and instead led the rest of the field the entire race. Stuwe finished a great High School Cross Country career making All State for three years and medaling twice, but he is overshadowed by a generational talent.
Most assumed Fries and Stuwe would go 1 and 2 so the race was seemingly for 3rd. Congrats to Tyler Flippen for running a great race taking that spot. He showed some guts staying with Stuwe the majority of the race.
Meberg ran a great race taking 4th and leading Blaine to the Championship. Also congrats to Channing Goodwin from Rosemount who ran a gutty race leading Rosemount to a top 3 finish. He was 30th at the mile mark and worked his way all the way up to 5th.
Congrats to Blaine on winning the team title beating the favorites from Wayzata. We all knew Blaine had a shot to win but winning the title by 25 points was completely unexpected! Great performance by that team and their coaches getting them ready when it matters most. Wayzata had a great year but settles for 2nd again and Rosemount also with a great year taking 3rd. Looking at who these teams graduate for Seniors, and who they have coming back next year, I feel these 3 teams will be the favorites once again next year for the team title.
One final thought on this years graduating class. The 2026 class is very top heavy on talent with Fries, and to a lesser extent Stuwe, but beyond those 2 there weren't really any seniors that stood out. At AAA after Fries and Stuwe the next 4 spots were all underclassmen. In fact only 2 of the final 8 spots that medaled at state were taken by seniors. Add to that the fact both AA and A were won by underclassmen, shows it was not the strongest year overall for seniors.
Girls
Maddie Gullickson caps off her high school career with a dominating performance. Running a PR in 16:54 and lapping the field by 37 seconds is just incredible. The gap between her and the 2nd place finisher was actually larger than the gap between Fries and the 2nd place finisher on the boys side.
Seniors Anna VanAcker and Carley LaMotte close out their High School XC careers with 2nd and 3rd place finishes. Freshmen Brynlee Wegener from Blaine taking 4th and 8th grader Mackenzie Myran taking 7th was very impressive. The battles between those 2 could be fun to watch in the coming years.
Wayzata exerts their dominance with 5 of the top 10 spots and a state meet record low of 27 points. I am excited to see how they perform on the national stage at NXN.
A tight race for 2nd place with STMA edging out Edina by 3 points and Edina edging out Forest Lake for 3rd by 4 points.
I would also put Mounds View and Stillwater in the mix of boys teams that can compete for a state title next year. Neither of them are graduating many people. Although their long-time head coaches retired a couple of years ago, the new coaches are keeping the ball rolling for those programs.
Fries is arguably the greatest Cross Country runner ever from MN. He now has the all-time state record for time with a 14:22 and the all-time State Course record at Lee Bolstadt with a 14:50. He also broke the St Olaf Course record and the Gale Woods course record, and there have been some amazing runners that have run on those courses as well. The only course he ran this year where he didn't break the record was Griak, but he was real close there too. I honestly believe he has a shot at winning NXN, he looks like a machine right now.
Stuwe showed all season he was the 2nd best runner in the state and proved it at the State meet. With Fries going out in 4:37 he chose not to try and stay with him and instead led the rest of the field the entire race. Stuwe finished a great High School Cross Country career making All State for three years and medaling twice, but he is overshadowed by a generational talent.
Most assumed Fries and Stuwe would go 1 and 2 so the race was seemingly for 3rd. Congrats to Tyler Flippen for running a great race taking that spot. He showed some guts staying with Stuwe the majority of the race.
Meberg ran a great race taking 4th and leading Blaine to the Championship. Also congrats to Channing Goodwin from Rosemount who ran a gutty race leading Rosemount to a top 3 finish. He was 30th at the mile mark and worked his way all the way up to 5th.
Congrats to Blaine on winning the team title beating the favorites from Wayzata. We all knew Blaine had a shot to win but winning the title by 25 points was completely unexpected! Great performance by that team and their coaches getting them ready when it matters most. Wayzata had a great year but settles for 2nd again and Rosemount also with a great year taking 3rd. Looking at who these teams graduate for Seniors, and who they have coming back next year, I feel these 3 teams will be the favorites once again next year for the team title.
One final thought on this years graduating class. The 2026 class is very top heavy on talent with Fries, and to a lesser extent Stuwe, but beyond those 2 there weren't really any seniors that stood out. At AAA after Fries and Stuwe the next 4 spots were all underclassmen. In fact only 2 of the final 8 spots that medaled at state were taken by seniors. Add to that the fact both AA and A were won by underclassmen, shows it was not the strongest year overall for seniors.
Girls
Maddie Gullickson caps off her high school career with a dominating performance. Running a PR in 16:54 and lapping the field by 37 seconds is just incredible. The gap between her and the 2nd place finisher was actually larger than the gap between Fries and the 2nd place finisher on the boys side.
Seniors Anna VanAcker and Carley LaMotte close out their High School XC careers with 2nd and 3rd place finishes. Freshmen Brynlee Wegener from Blaine taking 4th and 8th grader Mackenzie Myran taking 7th was very impressive. The battles between those 2 could be fun to watch in the coming years.
Wayzata exerts their dominance with 5 of the top 10 spots and a state meet record low of 27 points. I am excited to see how they perform on the national stage at NXN.
A tight race for 2nd place with STMA edging out Edina by 3 points and Edina edging out Forest Lake for 3rd by 4 points.
I would also put Mounds View and Stillwater in the mix of boys teams that can compete for a state title next year. Neither of them are graduating many people. Although their long-time head coaches retired a couple of years ago, the new coaches are keeping the ball rolling for those programs.
Washburn has a shot too, if their 4th and 5th runners step up and have a great race. They return everyone except Guertin
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
With NXR coming up, it looks like the Wayzata girls team will win it and will be the only MN girls team that makes NXN. Gullickson will be top 5 at NXR individually.
On the boys side, Fries will probably be the only MN guy that qualifies. Blaine has improved throughout the season and won state by an impressive margin, but it will be tough for them to qualify for NXN
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
Blaine obviously ran amazing and executed the strategy to perfection. Top #5 and #7 runners on the day. According to my records, Elijah Thomas' 16:29 is the 3rd fastest #7 runner time at state since at least 1992.
Wayzata ran well. Top 3 all PR'ed with senior Jenneke especially running great. Their 5th runner was just too far back. Samarth Raj was their #4 at Conference, missed sections, then was their #7 at State. Assuming he wasn't fully healthy on Saturday.
Rosemount ran well too. Once again though they went out conservative being 10th at the mile. They were 15th last year and finished 5th. That works great to have a solid race, but it is just too conservative to win the team title where you need a full-potential race. Tough to have your #6 at 16:25 and not get top 2 though- my records have that as the 5th fastest #6 runner's time at state and previous 4 teams all won (all Wayzata).
Two Rivers also went out conservative being 12th at mile and ended up 5th. Molinaro is a star sophomore, but no one else here had a great race. I heard Fernandes was one of the ones to get tripped up / fell so maybe others on their team did too.
Tonka didn't have a great day besides Fries and Kraus. Bach was farther back than expected. Like others have said, Fries is just so dominant. Can't take watching greatness for granted.
MV nothing special either though previous poster mentioned Richer fell early on so could have impacted others too. Miller ran great though.
Stillwater got out hot as usual and faded. They ran okay still but having your 3-5 between 16:45-16:48 just won't cut it in a fast year. Just top guy is a senior so should be strong next year.
Duluth East finishing 6th was great for them. Probably should have predicted them to be up there but they are a tough team to evaluate given they aren't at a ton of big meets.
Roseville's #2 or #3 DNF'ed or else they probably would have snuck in the top 10 too
I agree with you on Rosemount, they typically never get out fast which puts a lot of pressure on the runners to make up a ton of spots in order to put the team in contention. They are a well coached team and a great program, but I wonder if they will ever 'just go for it' to get their first state title.
I also heard that a Two Rivers kid fell shortly after the start and it affected at least one of his teammates. Tough to come back from that when the margin for error was so thin to begin with.
Another great state meet in the books, always fun to follow results and storylines of the year.
Class A Boys:
Didn't expect Cotter to get top 3, very impressive and dominant.
Semling's 15:19 was the 2nd fastest time of the day.
On that note, would like to see Cotter move up to AA next year. Being state champs as private school really doesn't mean much. It's kind of odd the MN state champ doesn't even live in Minnesota. (remember Minnehaha basketball dominating a smaller class?)
Redwood (returns all 7) and Cotter look to be the favorites next year.
Litchfield came on here to talk, and didn't back it up
Class AA Boys:
Impressive win by Como Park, I was certain Perham would win
Two freshman in Mold and Freeland look to be bright spots in the future
Wouldn't rule out Wirth to contend for State Championship next year, had some fast races this year
Surprised to see Mankato East continue to rebuild year after year, good program down there, shout out to Belle Plaine as well to represent section 2AA from unrated to 6th
Class AAA Boys:
Great day for Blaine, taking down Wayzata. Will be rooting for Blaine to take second at nxr, although not sure how likely that is.
Duluth East and Owatonna ran great races when it mattered the most
Alexandria's top guy was 105th! Wow, great to see the whole state geographically represented, but there were a lot of better teams that sat at home Saturday. Looks like they return all 7 runners for next year.
Sean Fries, wow, I have to say he is the best high school xc runner ever out of MN. Broke all the course records, and was the top runner by 29 seconds. Looking for him to break Elliot Heath's 8:43 3200 meter record this spring.
Minnetonka came on here to talk, didn't back it up.
AAA returning 3 sophomores in the top 12, will be fun to follow
Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win a LetsRun t-shirt.Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win one of 10 LetsRun t-shirts.