MN Cross Country Predictions 2022

Gonna be interesting to get an idea this early on which boys team actually is better. Wayzata or Lakeville North.

Although the outcome could change in November.

Actually, all boys team ranked in the top 7 are racing each other except Rosemount and Mounds View. I think those 2 are racing in the Irish invite.

St. Paul central open.
Lakeville South boys win. Good 1-4. Should be able to make state again, especially if they find a #5.
Buffalo graduated their top 3 but they still had a good 1-5 (3 sophs in that group). 2 pairs of brothers scoring for them. Just like Newbury Park having had 2 pairs of brothers score for them last year.
Boys
https://fastfinishtiming.com/22CrossCountry/BoysVarsity.htm
Girls
https://fastfinishtiming.com/22CrossCountry/GirlsVarsity.htm

Rebel Northwoods Invite:
Edina boys and girls win.
Transfer Downin wins individually.

Boys:
Edina’s top 7 is in this order:
Sophomore
Sophomore
Senior
Junior
Freshman
Senior
Sophomore
This team has a bright future. I don’t know the last time Edina was this young.

Hopkins was missing almost all of their varsity.

Gulbertson from Breck wins, but Alden Keller has not raced since February….

Orono:
Chapman did not have his best race.
Next year, Orono returns him and the rest of their top 4 and will have a very good team if they find a #5.

Sorry, late to the party here, but they've essentially made AAA the metro area? Were the rich kids not getting enough participation trophies? Blaine and Duluth in the same section? Bemidji and Buffalo? What a joke.

This is an example of reasonable sections, from a geographic standpoint.

Cake eaters ...

the goal was to allow smaller schools to have greater participation in the state meet, not the other way around. I’m not sure I like it, but I see the rationale.

Personally, I like how Buffalo was moved to Bemidji’s section because that section was not very strong lately and needed help. Section 7 was never strong so it’s nice to see Blaine in it. They had a nice race at River Falls yesterday, and got a great junior class too. They will go to state for the first time in forever.

Great to see Minnetonka, EP and Edina move out of section 6. This really helped Minnetonka and SW boys and Hopkins girls make state for the first time in forever. Section 6 is still deep though

HUGE meet coming up:

mn.milesplit.com

Meet Preview: 2022 St. Olaf High School Showcase

Ryan Kotajarvi

Meet Preview for the first big meet of the season, the 2022 St. Olaf High School Showcase!

Link:mn.milesplit.com/articles/319118/meet-...

I'll be @ St. Olaf on Thursday - can't wait.

Gilles, Scott, Breker..........Wayzata boys...........

On the girl's side: Nechanicky vs. Drevlow vs. Mor (in her first XC test since her hip surgeries, but she ran very well on the track this Spring). Also, we'll get to see if the Wayzata girls run as well as expected as a team.......

What I noticed is that both Blaine and Duluth East are both really young, so next year they will make section 7 better than it used to be. For the last few years this section has been very weak. Good to see some good teams that never make state like Blaine moved to it

Olaf showcase:
Wayzata girls team is DEEP. Nechanicky with a 17:09.
Minnetonka was missing Mor and maybe some others. Downing transferring out didn’t help. But it sure helped Edina.

Boys results…
Starts with a 5th place? Skips a bunch of places like 21/22. Some Chips have trouble being registered?

Hopkins has a strong 3 (including Sydney Drevlow’s 8th grade brother who ran a 17:11). Results really show how much it hurt to lose Provenzano. He is really helping Carmel to do big things though. So good for him and Carmel!

Farmington girls team has a strong 1-4 but needs a #5 but no seniors on this team so they got another year to find a number 5

Noah Breker won, around 15:26. I think Sam Scott was a few seconds back.

Abbey Nechanicky looked amazing. At the finish she looked fresh......like she'd just done a warm-up.

Fifth Wayzata girl finished 21st.......very strong team performance. Grace Weber finished sixth on the team, in 27th place. Not her best race: she was getting some attention in the medical tent afterwards. (Hot & humid morning...)

Washburn at second place…

could make state for the first time since 2015 when they weren’t even supposed to do it over Wayzata/Edina. nice to see that they did though

Showcase boy's results. Breker, Gilles, Scott....top three.

Wayzata was missing their top guy McCollor.

But if Washburn is able to close the 4-5 gap they will might be able to challenge Wayzata even if McCollor comes back.
Washburn is looking to get top 2 at sections especially if their 4-5 gap closes.

But either way, Wayzata has only one senior. So they will be really good next year.

Next year Southwest returns a strong 1-3 and a really good #6. Hopefully they will be able to find a 5th guy for next year.
Washburn’s #2 guy appears to have never run until last track season when he ran a 2:02 in the 800. Nice pickup.