The Cardinal boys cross country team ran away with the Wright County Conference title Thursday, Oct. 13, at Lake Rebecca State Park. Steven Parker led them to a 46-point finish with his time of 17:43. He came in fourth overall. Teammates Connor Gjevre, Russ Trusty and Joe Yotter came in sixth, seventh and 14th to join him in taking all-conference honors. Jake Carlen, a freshman, was only one place away from all-conference. He was named all-conference honorable mention. “They acted like a championship team and they ran like a championship team,” coach Scott Massmann said. The closest team to the Cardinals was Watertown-Mayer in second place with 63 points. Mound-Westonka was third with 65; Glencoe-Silver Lake was fourth with 83; Delano was fourth with 132; Litchfield was fifth with 164; Dassel-Cokato was sixth with 186 and Waconia was seventh with 210. The challenging course slowed times down a little for the runners. They ran through very hilly terrain that wound through the woods on narrow trails. Gjevre crossed the line in 17:59; Trusty’s time was 18:01; Yotter’s was 18:19; Carlen’s was 18:25; Kyle Stommes was 27th with a time of 19:15 and Andrew Larson was 32nd with a time of 19:45. The course was more of a problem for the girls, who placed fourth as a team. Watertown-Mayer won it with 52 points; Mound-Westonka was second with 56; Litchfield was third with 101; Annandale had 102; Glencoe-Silver Lake was fifth with 118; Dassel-Cokato was sixth with 134; Waconia was seventh with 138 and Delano was eighth with 157. “We were disappointed to be honest,” Massmann said. “Just a week ago, we beat Mound and Litchfield by 25-30 points.” The trails and huge hills were part of the problem. “They were either on the side of a hill, going up a hill or down one all of the time,” Massmann said. “We thought even if we didn’t run well we would finish third. That Litchfield had 101 and we had 102, that stings.” Robin Ekholm led the Cardinals with her seventh-place finish in a time of 16:56, and Emily Pippo was 12th with a time of 17:25. Both were all-conference. Brittany Partridge was 17th with a time of 17:42; Vicki Alama was 29th with a time of 18:20; Rachel Lashinski was 37th with a time of 18:38; Amanda West was 38th with a time of 18:45 and Laura Sanders was 44th with a time of 19:11. “We still feel our girls are one of the top three teams in the section,” Massmann said. “We were a little off on Thursday, but that doesn’t end our season.” The subsection and the section races are the ones the teams have to think about now. On Tuesday, Oct. 18, both the boys and girls were scheduled to compete in the South Subsection meet at the Shamrock Golf Course near Rockford. From there, the top four teams and top 10 individual athletes advance to the Section 5A meet at Pierz on Thursday, Oct. 27. The top two teams from the section go on to State. “Starting tomorrow, we can’t have any off days,” Massmann said Monday.
