The Minnewaska Area cross-country team had a great season in 2024, qualifying the girls team to the State Meet along with Zach Palmer from the boys squad.

The Lakers girls went on to place 13th at the State Meet with 249 points, which was just 24 points away from seventh-place Staples-Motley.

During the State Meet, Nori Song led the Laker girls in 71st place while Palmer placed 66th overall for the boys out of 160 racers.

The entire Minnewaska Area girls cross-country team returns next season, while the boys team will lose five runners to graduation — Ian Mills, Zach Palmer, Luke Hoffman, Ryan Koehntop and Chase Wacker.

In team awards, announced by coaches Jennifer Johnsrud and Linda Mills, eighth-grader Nori Song was named the MVP of the girls team, while eighth-grader Jillian Deutsch earned Most Improved, ninth-grader Sydney Ankeny earned the Best Teammate and Most Improved Awards, eighth-grader Maia Larson won the Rookie of the Year honor, junior Piper Citrowske-Lee won the Most Inspirational Award, and junior Lauryn Ankeny was selected for the Laker Tough Award.

For the boys, senior Zach Palmer and senior Ian Mills were both named co-MVP’s of the team, while Mills also earned the Most Inspirational Award and Laker Tough honors, eighth-grader Deitrich Reidenbach won the Rookie of the Year Award, and senior Luke Hoffmann won the  Most Improved and Best Teammate honors.

•  Earning All-Conference this fall for the Lakers were Nori Song, Lauryn Ankeny, Piper Citrowske-Lee, Jillian Deutsch, Maia Larson, Sydney Ankeny, Zach Palmer and Ian Mills, while selected to the honorable mention team were Ella Larson and Luke Hoffmann.

Serving as captains for this year’s teams were Ian Mills, Zach Palmer, Lauryn Ankeny and Piper Citrowske-Lee.

Earning Academic All-Conference were Lauryn Ankeny, Aubrey Stark, Sophia Wallin, Piper Citrowske-Lee, Zach Palmer, Luke Hoffmann and Ian Mills, while named to the 2024 Academic All-State team were Lauryn Ankeny, Zach Palmer and Piper Citrowske-Lee.