Cross-country teams to race at Morris, Monday
Sports | Published on August 26, 2024 at 1:03pm CDT
The Minnewaska cross-country teams are set to commence with the season Monday, Aug. 26 at the Morris Invitational followed by the Wadena-DC Invite, Tuesday, Sept. 3 and the LPGE Invitational, Monday, Sept. 9.
Gone from last year’s team are Izzy Bautista, Teagan Stark, Jayce Kovarik and Maeson Tank, who also all served as captains for last year’s team. Tank qualified to the state meet the last two years, while current junior Lauryn Ankeny has qualified to state the last three seasons.
The Minnewaska Area Invitational is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 8, while the WCC Meet is scheduled for Melrose and the Section 6A Meet will take place at WDC this season.
This year’s Minnewaska Area girls cross-country roster includes juniors Lauryn Ankeny, Piper Citrowske-Lee, Grace Herfindahl and Aubrey Stark; sophomore Sophia Wallin; ninth-graders Sydney Ankeny and Ella Larson; and eighth-graders Jillian Deutsch, Maia Larson and Nori Song, while the boys cross-country roster includes seniors Luke Hoffmann, Ryan Koehntop, Ian Mills, Zach Palmer and Chase Wacker; juniors Carter Dinsmore and Tayte Wasiloski; ninth-grader Rylan Tank; eighth-graders Deitrich Reidenbach and Jase Ritter; and seventh-grader Caden Hawkins.
A look at last year
The boys and girls cross-country teams had great seasons in 2023 as both teams were among the top teams in almost every meet they entered, including the WCC meet where the girls were first and the boys were second, and at the Section 6A Meet where girls were third and the boys placed fourth out of 15 complete teams.
In addition to winning the WCC team title, the Laker girls were second at the 11-team LPGE Invitational, second of 15 teams at the Melrose Invite and second of four teams at the Minnewaska Invitational last year, while the boys were also second of nine teams at the Sauk Centre Invitational and third of eight teams at the Paynesville Meet.
Maeson Tank and Lauryn Ankeny were the leaders for their respective teams last season. Tank placed first at the WCC Meet with a time of 16:54 and was also second at the Morris Invitational and third at three other competitions, while Ankeny placed first at the LPGE Invitational and WCC Meet, was second at the WDC Invitational and third at the Melrose Invitational.
Of course, the highlight of the season was Tank and Ankeny qualifying to the state meet where Tank closed out his high school career with a 35th place finish in the Class A Meet, while Ankeny placed 122nd in her third-straight state competition.
• Earning All-Conference for the cross-country program last fall were Lauryn Ankeny, Nori Song, Zach Palmer and Maeson Tank, while Jayce Kovarik and Jillian Deutsch were both honorable mention.
