Yotter earns trip to State with sixth place in Section

Annandale will once again send an athlete on to the State Cross Country Meet thanks to the efforts of cross country runner Chris Yotter.
Yotter, a junior, battled blizzard-like conditions on Thursday, Oct. 25, to take sixth place at the Section 5A Cross Country meet at Pebble Creek in Becker.
“Our strategy was to move from pack to pack and use other racers as a wind break,” coach Scott Massmann said.
Yotter and Jim Schultz emerged from the starting line mix-up with the front pack and the coaches just hoped they would just hang in there.
“They were both close to the line,” Massmann said. “Jim crossed that line, but Chris was able to hang on by a thin string.”
Finishing with a time of 17:26, Yotter made the “to-State” cutoff with one place to spare.
The Cardinals went into Thursday’s race with the attitude that they were not going to give up without a fight.
“We knew we were going to have to have the race of our lives, and even then we would have only placed fourth, the other teams were too strong,” Massmann said.
The Cardinals ended up with sixth place as a team, the top two teams will go on to the State meet at St. Olaf.
St. Cloud Cathedral took first place Thursday with 53 points, Crosby-Ironton took second with 58. Paynesville (78), Albany (118) and Hinkley-Finlayson (127) also snuck by Annandale who had 132 points.
The Cardinals seven racers were pummeled both by the wind and their determination to end their season with a bang.
“We attacked the race,” Massmann said. “We figured we would rather be in the race for a little while than not at all.”
Because of that attitude, Schultz, who is usually only seconds behind Yotter fell back to 24th place with a time of 18:30.
“If he had run conservatively he could have gotten 15th place, but he knew that wasn’t going to do it,” Massmann said. “He knew it didn’t matter much if he placed 17th or 25th, only the top seven went on.”
Following Schultz was Ryan Grambart in 28th place with a time of 18:37. Bryce Connick placed 35th at 18:58, Adam Hoffman ran for 39th at 19:11, Chris Craft took 42nd with 19:29 and Tim Yotter ran for 47th place with a time of 19:41.
“We ended the season right where we wanted to be,” Massmann said. “As a whole, this boys team was the most coachable kids I ever worked with and the most team oriented. They have nothing to hang their heads about.”
Yotter will run at the State Cross Country Meet on Saturday, Nov. 3, in Northfield at St. Olaf College. The race time is 1 p.m.