The Becker Bulldog boys cross country team spent time celebrating and reflecting on their condensed season and shared awards at their recent banquet.
Sections
The Bulldogs had competed in the Section 8AA cross country meet in Bemidji where they matched the second best team placement for the Bulldogs since they moved to class AA back in 2005. The experience in Bemidji was a bit of a different one again as the event was run as four separated races and the snow was flurrying amidst the wind.
Head Coach Dustin Weege said this situation unfortunately placed the Bulldogs in a difficult position as they were needing to lead their race against their scheduled opponents while they chased the times of racers from earlier in the day. The Bulldogs ran great as they captured the top four spots of their race with all seven Bulldog harriers finishing in the top 15 of their portion.
Those great performances there made it possible for the Bulldogs to overtake another team as they virtually caught and passed the team from Rocori by one point in order to move up in the overall placements for the section meet.
Lukas Karel led almost the entire race and finished with a time of 17:40.7, which placed him 22nd overall in the section of 102 runners from 15 teams (one of the 16 section teams was unable to compete).
Next was Tyson Ricker with a time of 17:59 as he finished 33rd overall in the section. Mason Becker and Jase Tobako were challenging each other well as they raced to the finish ahead of runners from the other teams. Cade Stommes and Wyatt Hiltner then crossed the line at 18:43 and 18:47 respectively with Ryan Becker finishing the 5km in a time of 19:12.
The Bulldogs were also fortunate to have Caleb Reckelberg & Bruce Kraemer on hand as alternates for that day.
Banquet
For the awards celebration, the Bulldogs recognized each of the 28 members of the team. There were 11 varsity letter winners for the Bulldogs with Luke MacDonald, Caleb Reckelberg and Jase Tobako lettering with the team for the first time and eight returning letter winners.
As a team, the Bulldogs demonstrated some strong academics again as they earned Gold awards from both the MN Coaches Association and from the Mississippi 8 Conference with a team GPA of 3.83.
In addition to the team award, seven runners were recognized for All-Conference Academic awards (Lukas Karel, Luke MacDonald, Keegan Murphy, Cade Stommes, Ryan Boecker, Caleb Reckelberg, Tyson Ricker).
The Bulldogs had six individual racing champions and seven team racing titles from the triangular races. There were three Bulldogs that earned All-Conference awards (Karel, Ricker, and Becker)and one Honorable Mention (Tobako).
The team recognized a number of individuals as Tobako earned a plaque for the rookie award and Alex Schermer received a certificate. Mason Becker was the most improved runner as he made some significant gains from last year to this one. Aiden Frommelt was also recognized for his gains this season. Tyson Ricker received the most dedicated plaque and also garnered the G.O.A.T. award. Lukas Karel earned the most valuable teammate award while also capturing the scholar athlete award.
The Bulldogs also recognized the five seniors for their investments in themselves and in the team over the years. Cade Stommes, Luke MacDonald, Keegan Murphy, Lukas Karel and Wyatt Hiltner have invested in many miles as they’ve strived to run the race with endurance. They have experienced gains and have been valuable contributors to the team along the way.
“Our seniors will be missed as they’ve made a number of positive impacts within the team, but we are confident they will continue to impact in their futures” said coach Weege.
The guys were grateful to get to unveil the CC team banner at the banquet.
According to the coaches, off-season and summer miles will be big factors going into next year and members of the team are encouraged to compete in winter and spring sport seasons to continue their development as young men.
Coaches Dustin Weege and Patrick Drury look forward to seeing members of the team continue their growth and look forward to investing more for the future.
