MN All-Decade Cross Country Team

Heavy bias towards recent years

Grace Ping's middle school career in Minnesota was phenomenal. Pretty solid high school career there too. I personally think she should get more credit than Wolfgram, who flamed out after running a 2:40 marathon. Then again, the Pings always move.

why is grace ping ranked so low wrote:

Grace Ping's middle school career in Minnesota was phenomenal. Pretty solid high school career there too. I personally think she should get more credit than Wolfgram, who flamed out after running a 2:40 marathon. Then again, the Pings always move.

Grace Ping deserves to be in the first team. The one I’d switch her with is Clare Flanagan. She didn’t compete her senior year at all. She raced at NXN only once and didn’t place as high as Wolfgram or Grace Ping. All 3 have the same number of MN XC state titles, and none of those are Class A. Flanagan would have never finished in the top 2 in Class AA the years she competed. Wolfgram deserves to be in the first team since she got 7th at Footlocker nationals.

My first team for girls would be: Maria Hauger, Emily Covert, Bethany Hasz, Megan Hasz, Grace Ping, Tierney Wolfgram, Anna Fenske (not necessarily ranked 1-7)

I’d pick Maria Hauger as a runner of the decade for MN girls as she was the only MN girl to win state 3 times in the decade (she won in 2009 also).

Minnesota wrote:

Grace Ping deserves to be in the first team. The one I’d switch her with is Clare Flanagan. She didn’t compete her senior year at all. She raced at NXN only once and didn’t place as high as Wolfgram or Grace Ping. All 3 have the same number of MN XC state titles, and none of those are Class A.

I meant none of those state titles are Class AA

Jessie Diggins

Ah, forgot about Flanagan. I agree though, Wolfgram is definitely more accomplished than Flanagan and Grace Ping should be first team.

For boys, Adam Zutz should be first-team instead of Uhrbom. Zutz won AA in 2010, qualified for NXN and got 23rd there. Yes, Uhrbom won state twice, but that’s only Class A. He would not have won the Class AA in either year. NXR results show that too. He never qualified for NXN.

Shane Streich should be replaced in first-team with one of the top 2017 grads - Patrick Roos (for winning state and getting 11th at Footlocker Midwest), Alex Miley (for getting 15th at NXN), or Seth Eliason (for beating everyone in MN at both Griak and NXR senior year). Streich won state in 2014, but that was only Class A. He would not have won Class AA. Plus, Streich never finished in the top 21 at NXR.

Seems like when they look at how many state titles they win, they don’t compare the state winning time in class A to AA. If do the “All decade cross country team” again at the end of this decade and they don’t take into account which class had the fastest state winning time, it’s probably going to be even worse since in a couple of years, there will be 3 classes instead of 2.

Joe Klecker?? Isnt that guy still running in college?

good kidd madd city wrote:

Joe Klecker?? Isnt that guy still running in college?

He’s solid but I think their all-decade selections are based off of only high school cross country careers. Not College career or high school track.

I’d pick Jaret Carpenter as a runner of the decade.

4th at NXN, state champ, and Heartland champ 2015.