The Becker girls cross country team took first place and the boys took second at Tuesday’s Albany Purple Pride Invitational. The Huskies dedicated the day as a “pink day” for breast cancer prevention, allowing the competitors to wear the color pink during their races.

 

The boys ran outstanding at this meet, grouping really well to take second place behind Rocori and just one point ahead of Big Lake.  

 

Becker’s Caleb Foster ran a very good race to lead the Bulldog boys, placing 10th overall with a time of 18:11.56.

 

“ He has gotten stronger all season and finishes tough,” said Head Coach Trish Reimer-Kealy. 

 

Becker’s second best runner Tuesday was Luke Pappenfus, who was fired up in his first  race back from an injury. He ran a personal record time of 18:53.87 to place 19th overall.

 

Next in the pack was Keith Sorensen (18:59.6), Jonathan Novak (19:01.89) and Olsen Pancoast (19:07.28) in 21st, 22nd, and 23rd places. They were followed by Basil Ricker (19:10.38) in 26th and Sam Somrock (19:41.01) in 34th.   

 

Team scores: Rocori 23, Becker 90, Big Lake 91, albany 112, Foley 129, Milaca 152, Zimmerman 165, Pierz 198, Melrose 199, Holdingford (Inc.).

 

The Becker girls ran another great race to take first place behind their super trio of Alli Hendrickson, Lexi Dehmer and Julia Bengston.  

 

 Coming in first place was Hendrickson (19:40.16), second place was Dehmer (19:56.72) and third was Bengston (19:57.92).  

 

“Alli again took the early lead to control the race to the finish,” said the head coach.  “Lexi and Julia made it interesting, working their way to second and third place with Lexi finally catching Julia right at the finish in a tight race. It so good that these three can challenge each other and make each other better with such healthy attitudes and competition.” 

 

Also placing in the awards was Sydney Stommes (21.37.70) running well to place 13th. Victoria Kolbinger (22:01.18) came in 17th, just out of the awards (top 15).  Gabby Imm (22:09.34) earned another PR in just her second varsity race to place 22nd and Callie Doucette (23:13.93), in her first varsity race, placed 36th.  

 

“So great to see these girls racing so well,” said Reimer-Kealy.

 

Team scores: Becker 34, Rocori 42, Albany 101, Zimmerman 102, Milaca 117, Melrose 131, Big Lake 180, Foley 230, Holdingford (Inc.).

 

The Becker JV boys placed sixth behind Bennett Edling (12th) 20:14.49, Lachlan Lahr (24th) 21:05.98, Brett Parson (41st) 21:40.60, Brendan Potter (48th) 21:53.26, Erik Parson (57th) 22:29.86, David Myers (65th) 23:16.33 and Logan Lahr (69th) 23:44.46.

 

The Becker JV girls placed first behind Jada Rositas (1st) 22:13.68, Allyna Storms (3rd) 22:55.91, Tate Spinner (5th) 23:15.26, Madison McDonald (7th) 23:21.76, Siera Knick (10th) 23:35.32, Alli Garding (12th) 23:47.19, Cayla Pauman (16th) 23:55.43 and Shannon Sydow (23rd) 24:56.33.

 

Becker’s top junior high runners in the 3200 meter race were Ethan Baker 14:07.89, Cade Stommes 14:15.91, Jack Budd 14:53.78 and Tucker Schmoll 14:59.66.

 

For the Becker junior high girls team, Abby Nelson was the team’s top runner at 15:21.37, Olivia Mateyka 16:08.18, Jaden Kraus 16:24.60 and Trinity Olsen-Burkman 16:25.09.

 

Last Saturday, the boys and girls cross country teams traveled to Alexandria to compete against 21 other area schools.

 

The Becker boys varsity team placed 18th as a team  running against some great teams.  

 

“Our boys ran well on this challenging course with 147 runners competing,” said Reimer-Kealy. “Caleb Foster continues to lead the pack while our other team members keep challenging one another for the next spots.”

 

Following Forster as a top runner for the Bulldogs was Keith Sorensen, who finished 87th with a time of  18:31.7. Jonathan Novak was 99th (18:44.6), Olsen Pancoast 109th (19:02.6) and Basil Ricker 115th (19:07.4).  

 

“We had a time of 49 seconds for the spread between our runners,” said Reimer-Kealy. “They continue to do a good job of running in a pack as a team.”

 

Team scores: Stillwater 68, Mounds View 130, Willmar 140, Sartell St. Stephen 153, Sioux Falls Washington 163, White Bear Lake 172, Chanhassen 176, Alexandria 214, Marshall 256, Chaska 258, Red Wing 309, Buffalo 320, Monticello 325, Roseville 326, St. Cloud Cathedral 342, Cretin-Durham Hall  384, St. Cloud Tech 412, Becker 85, Windom 518, St. Cloud Apollo 571, St. Louis Park 575 and Park Center 657.

 

In the JV boys race, there were 330 runners and Becker’s Lachlan Lahr  came in 224th (21:49.0), Brett Parson 229th (22:03.5), Erik Parson 241st (22:23.9), Brendan Potter 246th (22:27.7) and Logan Lahr 305th (25:45.4).

 

The Bulldog girls varsity team placed 14th.   There were 139 runners with Willmar and Marshall being state-ranked teams. 

 

Hendrickson just missed out on earning a trophy by placing 17th in a time of 19:26.8 (top 15 received trophies). Dehmer wasn't far behind (27th) at 20:12.9, followed by Stommes 89th (21:54.6), Victoria Kolbinger 95th (22:00.8), Gabby Imm 104th (22:24.9-PR), Jada Rositas 113th (23:03.5) and Allyna Storms 117th (23:21.4).

 

“The girls ran well against some very good teams,” said the head coach.

 

Team scores: Willmar 89, Marshall 95, Red Wing 103, Roseville 144, White Bear Lake 169, Chanhassen 207, Monticello 210, St. Cloud Tech 235, Sartell St. Stephen 251, Alexandria 251, Chaska 282, Stillwater 305, Sioux Falls Washington 322, Becker 332, Buffalo 347, St. Louis Park 364, Mounds View 421, Park Center 471, St. Cloud Apollo 559, Windom 577 and Cretin-Durham Hall 603.

 

The JV girls race had 264 runners and Becker’s Doucette was tops for the team with a 59th place finish (23:02.1). Alli Garding was 61st (23:09.0), Madi McDonald 62nd (23:09.1), Tate Spinner 80th (23:32.7), Cayla Pauman 98th (24:04.4), Siera Knick 127th (24:51.4), Renee Tripp 130th (25:01.1), Haley Benda 132nd (25:01.7), Elli Schwartz 134th (25:03.3), Shannon Sydow 160th (25:51.5), Alyssa Thielen 168th (26:13.5), Deedra Lawrence 184th (26:32.6), Kayden Westin 206th (27:17.0), Caylah Chonsky 211th (27:23.2) and Laura Pancoast (32:59.8).

 

The Granite Ridge Conference championship meet will be Tuesday at Foley and the Section 8AA playoffs start Oct. 29 in Monticello.