The Becker Bulldog boys and girls cross country teams competed in two meets this past week — one on the campus of the University of Minnesota and the other at Stone Creek Golf Course in Foley. 

 

Thursday was a fantastic day for the Becker CC teams — especially the girls — as they swept all three races at varsity, JV and junior high.

 

Alli Hendrickson led the field from start to finish, winning with a time of 19;00.16.

 

“She commanded the race the entire way looking very strong,” said Head Coach Trish Reimer-Kealy. 

 

Julia Bengston and Lexi Dehmer battled with Mora's Brooke Wedin for second place the whole race and came away with third and fourth places behind Wedin. 

 

“They ran great races, coming home with times of 19:10.11 for Julia and 19:11.76 for Lexi,” said Reimer-Kealy.  

 

Sydney Stommes was Becker’s fourth top runner, placing 10th in a time of 10:59.03. Close behind her was Victoria Kolbinger in 15th (21:07.66), Jada Rositas 18th (21:42.10) and Alli Garding 22nd (21:51,03).

 

“It was a very fast course on a beautiful day resulting in some great times,” said Reimer-Kealy.  “All our varsity girls came away with personal records for the day. Exciting to have all the girls under 22:00.    

 

Varsity team scores: Becker 33, Mora 64, Princeton 98, Milaca 101, St. Cloud Cathedral 122, Albany 125, Zimmerman 153 and Foley 201.

 

“The girls  had a great pack in this race with the girls really stepping up their efforts to impress,” said the head coach.

 

Gabby Imm led Becker in fourth place with a time of  22:26.93. Allyna Storms was sixth in 22:29.56, Tate Spinner seventh in 22:31.39, Callie Doucette eighth in 22:32.97, Madi McDonald 11th in 23:06,58, Siera Knick 12th in 23:08.72, Cayla Pauman 13th in 23:09.45, Haley Benda 15th in 23:18,97, Ellie Schwartz 17th in  23:27.72, Renee Tripp 18th in  23:28.22, Caylah Chonsky 32nd, Deedra Lawrence 35th, Kayden Westin 36th, Shannon Sydow 37th, Jessica Sand 39th, Alyssa Thielen 41st, Karly Kowalsky 53rd and Laura Pancoast 64th.

 

JV girls team scores: Becker 32, Albany 33, Pine City 82,St Cloud Cathedral 114 and Mora 119.

 

The Becker junior high team was led by Abby Nelson in fourth, Trinity Olsen-Burkman in 10th and Jaden Kraus in 11th.

 

Junior high team scores: Becker 44, Mora 57, SCC 67, Albany 68 and Pierz 112.

 

“The boys varsity team ran a great race with a fantastic pack mentality going for them,” said Reimer-Kealy. 

 

Caleb Foster was Becker's #1 runner, placing 14th overall (18:06.57) followed by Jonathan Novak in 15th (18:11.51 season best), Olsen Pancoast with a great finishing kick for 17th (18:15.41 PR), Keith Sorensen in 18th (18:17.29 PR), Basil Ricker 19th (18:17.87 PR), Sam Somrock 24th (18:42.87 PR) and Brett Parson in 45th (20:31.45 PR). 

 

“It was a fun race to see our guys working together so well as a team and really pushing one another,” said the head coach.  “They did a great job.”

 

Varsity team scores: Mora 19, Becker 78, Foley 91, Milaca 116, Albany 132, Zimmerman 140, Pierz 153, Princeton 215.

 

The JV race saw  Bennett Edling — a seventh grader — step in for his first 5K race and he placed 11th overall running an impressive time of 19:26.47.  Lachlan Lahr ran a personal record of 20:28.18 for 21st. David Myers, an eighth grader, ran his first 5K as well and placed 24th (20:40.54). Erik Parson was 37th in 21:54.79 (PR), Brendan Potter in 22:10.43 (PR), Logan Lahr 45th in 23:02.79 (season best).

 

Jr High boys were led by Cade Stommes in 18th, Ethan Baker in 24th and Wyatt Hiltner in 27th.

 

Three Becker varsity girls placed in the top 10 at Tuesday’s cross country meet at the University of Minnesota. 

 

The Roy Griak Invitational is one of the premier CC meets held and it involves college races at the Divisions I, II and III levels for men and women and two divisions for high school races.  The event is named for U of M coaching legend, Roy Griak who passed away this summer at the age of 91. 

 

The teams entered in the contest included many out-of-state teams including lineups from Minnesota, South and North Dakotas, Wisconsin and Iowa. 

 

It was an outstanding day for a meet and Becker’s girls team ran in the Maroon Division, placing sixth out of 50 teams.

 

There were 443 runners in the Bulldogs’ race. 

 

Making the podium for Becker were three runners (the most of any team in the race) —  Alli Hendrickson placed seventh (20:15), Julia Bengston placed 10th (20:29) and Lexi Dehmer placed 13th (20:36).

 

“All ran great against some outstanding runners and continue to impress,” said Reimer-Kealy. 

 

Finishing out Becker’s top five were Sydney Stommes (23:18) and Victoria Kolbinger (23:21) in 154th and 159th.

 

Alli Garding  finished 213th with a 24:01 time, Jada Rositas (217th-24:04), Callie Doucette (261st-24:26) and Siera Knick (340-25:36). 

 

“This is a challenging course with rolling hills and with that number of competitors, it is easy to lose each other,” said the head coach.    “The girls are working hard and pushing each other well.”

 

The Becker boys team placed 39th out of 54 teams.

 

“They ran well despite missing two of our usual varsity members (Caleb Foster and Luke Pappenfus),” said Reimer-Kealy.  

 

Keith Sorenson stepped up to lead the ‘Dawgs and placed 133rd (19:21) out of 485 runners in the race.

 

“He looked strong and confident the whole race,’ Reimer-Kealy said. “He worked hard on his summer miles and it is showing.” 

 

 

Rounding out the boys team was Sam Somrock ( 274-2-:43) Brett Parson (337-22:04) and Lachlan Lahr ( 354-22:45).  

 

“This group of guys has been working together as a team much more this year and have been fun to work with,” said Reimer-Kealy.

 

Becker’s next meet is their first and only home meet at Pebble Creek Golf Course Tuesday, (Oct. 6). Then they travel to Alexandria Saturday.