Written by captain: Soren Murphy Pearson and head coach Janet Smith
The Northfield boys cross country team began their season by placing 12th against a field of 19 teams on Thursday August 29th at the St. Olaf Showcase. The teams were a mixture of A, AA, and AAA schools. All of our athletes ran in one big race with just shy of 400 runners. We had 3 athletes already run lifetime bests in the 5K, all were 9th grade returners Nathan Broughton, Jameson Fisher, and Aksel Johnson. Additionally, 15 newcomers finish their first ever 5K in a raider uniform. Despite the temperature being over 10 degrees warmer, many returners had a better time on this course than they did last year at the same meet. Overall, the cross country team did not perform as well as last year, placing 2 spots lower. However, many of the coaches are excited about many of the new and returning runners on this young team.
Defending section champs Winona, who graduated no varsity seniors last year, had a strong 5th place finish and are looking untouchable in the section this year. While we lost 2 seniors in our varsity 7 and 1 Junior due to a season ending injury, Northfield XC still hopes to compete for second place to secure a state bid for the second year in a row. On the conference side, Winona, Mankato West, and Mankato East all duked it out for 5th, 6th, and 7th respectively. Northfield hopes to compete for a top five placement at the conference meet this year behind these strong looking teams.
Our top seven athletes in the meet who will run Varsity this coming week:
Jason Aldorfer – 17:54, 38th
Isaac Schlief – 18:34, 66th
Fletcher Aylin – 18:35, 67th
Grant Selchow – 18:52, 78th
(Captain) Conner Kobes – 18:58, 85th
(8th Grader) Theodore Ennis – 19:30, 108th
(9th grade newcomer) Leo Sahlin – 19:53, 123rd
Other exciting performances came from what will be our top JV runners this coming week:
William Baragary – 20:18
Cameron David – 20:57
Weston Sweeney – 21:12
Asher Engle – 21:28
Nathan Broughton – 21:31
(9th grade newcomer) Owen Reece – 21:32
Caden Skluzacek – 21:34
The season outlook looks bright for the boys raider cross country team. We will no doubt be putting in many tough workouts between now and the championship part of the season and the boys know that a lot can happen in the next 8 weeks to improve our times and place in the conference, section, and state standings.
The Raiders are back in action this Friday September 6th, in Faribault at Alexander Park.
St. Olaf Showcase results: https://live.fastfinishresults.com/meets/39034
