It was a very successful MSHSL state boys cross country meet for the three Becker Bulldogs who participated, with two Bulldogs receiving All-state honors.

Tanner Felton finished in 17th place with a time of 16:20.5, while teammate Parker Spindler was less than five seconds behind and finished in 18th place with a time of 16:25.

By finishing in the top 25 participants in the race, both athletes scored the All-state status.  Classmate Alex Swanson finished in 103rd place with a time of 17:30.20, giving the Bulldogs a trio of Sophomores with excellent state tournament experience.

Weege and his team felt the love from the Becker community from the minute they left for the state meet.

“We left Becker feeling a lot of support as the community send-off event was filled with a bunch of really great people and we were energized as we got onto the bus,” Weege said.  “Having the youth basketball folks help send us off as well as all the families, friends, and community supporters was wonderful as the Becker PD guided us on our journey for the day. We certainly felt supported and we are grateful for that.” 

The new course for the State Meet left Weege and his participants with some unknown going into the race.

“Although Parker and Tanner had raced in the state meet before, this was a whole new experience for all of us with the new venue,” Weege said.  “Tanner, Alex, Parker, and I walked the course on Friday to discuss components of racing strategy on the new course as we were preparing for the hilly terrain and the soggy spots in the course.”

As the race started, Weege said his guys started out in decent positions as they moved through the start area and as they approached the first down hill which led to the first soggy area of the course. 

“We had discussed trying to reach that 1 mile mark around 5 min 12 seconds it was great to see the guys being right around that time,” Weege said.

According to Weege, Felton and Spindler continued to push each other on as they ran nearly side-by-side for much of the race, and it was near the final portion of the race that Felton overtook Spindler and worked to ‘pull his teammate along’  to the finish line.  

“For the first time in Bulldog Boys history, we had two guys accomplish All-State status and it was done with a lot of hard work and grit on the day and throughout the past year,”  commented Coach Weege.  “Earning All-State status means that they are in the top 1% of the runners in the state. I am most certainly proud of the three guys as they represented their hardworking team members well and our town well.  They raced with endurance and worked to bring our team a step closer to the big show as a team in the future."