The Bulldog boys and girls cross country teams competed in the Purple Pride Invitational Tuesday in Albany Tuesday and. Alexandria Lion's Meet of Champions last Saturday.

 

 

Coach Dustin Weege’s boys survived the cold temperatures and the rain as the weather turned sour at  North Park in Albany.  

 

“The cold and rain made for a mess of a course for the team as the hills and corners became quite slick,” said Weege. “It resulted in many runners stumbling through much of the course.  The conditions were not ideal, and yet the show went on.”  

 

The times of each runner ended up being about one minute longer than what Weege’s boys normally have been running, but they raced to try to compete on this most difficult day.  

 

Senior Basil Ricker wanted to defend his “Purple Pride’ champion status from a year ago, but unfortunately lost to a fellow senior from Melrose HS.  Ricker crossed the finish line as the second place finisher in the muddy wonderland.  

 

Lukas Karel worked hard throughout the race as he finished sixth.  Freshmen Kellen Hurt was the next Bulldog at the line as he also made the awards stand with his 14th place finish.  Wyatt Hiltner just missed the awards as he finished 16th and Jake Nelson was 19th.  

 

Cade Stommes and Tyson Ricker slipped and slid through the wet course to finish 24th and 25th respectively.  

 

 

The JV runners raced a little earlier, but the conditions weren’t any better.  Ethan Tobako and Nathan Zimmerman challenged each other well throughout the course as they worked together to improve their positions.  They, along with David Myres capture awards from the meet with their top 10 performances.

 

Aaron Gregory came in 11th as he and Myres had traded places throughout the slippery race.  Bennett Edling was 16th, Brock Ramola was 19th and Keegan Murphy was 28th.  Blake Sonneker was 29th, while Adrian Johnson was number 33 in the race with teammate Emery Olson close behind as he finished 35th and Levi Tesmer finished 41st.  The Boys JV team managed a second place finish.

 

 

The junior high team also finished second with some nice performances despite the rough conditions.   

 

Bruce Kramer wanted to earn the ‘Purple Pride’ champion award, but missed out by one second to earn second place.  Ryan Boecker and Isaac Bauer also earned top 10 awards as they finished fourth and fifth respectively.  

 

Even with a fair amount of slipping, Owen Kolbinger crossed the line in 12th place.  Ben Howe was 16th and Landon Lahr was 23rd.  Caleb Reckelberg continued his great attitude even amongst the not-so-pleasant conditions and he continued to model his dedication to completing each task.  Braeden Heinen was 33rd, Bryce Berger finished 36th and Hank Bjerga was 43rd place.

 

 

Trish Reimer-Kealy’s girls attended the Alexandria Lion's meet of champions last Saturday.  

 

“This was a very high quality meet with 22 schools represented,” said Reimer-Kealy.  “Several of the teams were state ranked and provided great competition.”  

 

The varsity race was won by Stillwater with 62 points followed by Marshall in second with 95. The Becker girls finished 13th.

 

Senior Victoria Kolbinger took a turn as Becker's number one runner at this meet, running a very nice race throughout and finishing in a strong manner, placing 44th (time 20:14.5) out of 134 total runners. 

 

Dani Nuest was Becker’s next girl, coming in 55th (20:30.8) with Adeline Kent just two spots behind in 57th (20:34.1) — her best time of the season.  Lexi Dehmer ran her first race in three weeks and placed 65th (20:45.9).  Kayla Gruenes placed 89th (21:14.9) and Abby Nelson 101st with a PR time (21:44.5).  Natasha Berthiaume finished in 117th (23:01.7) gaining valuable varsity experience in a large pack of runners in this race.

 

 

The JV team placed 14th with White Bear Lake taking first.  There were 264 runners in this race.

 

Alexa Voller ran a very good race, finishing 48th with a nice PR time of 22:02.8.  Jaden Kraus continues to run well and was 64th with a season best time (22:29.1).   

 

They were followed by Makenna Noaiel (112th  23:28.9), Tate Spinner (172nd 24:55.2), Cayla Pauman (195th 25:49.7), Olivia Mateyka (227 - 26:53.5), Maddy Schmitz (234 - 27:12.7) and Grace Wilhelm (237 - PR time 27:32.5).

 

 

The junior high girls placed fifth out of eight teams.  

 

Alea Briggs raced to 29th out of 102 runners. The other Becker girls ran a nice pack and placed as follows: Raegan Leaders 62nd, Abby Berning 63rd, Olivia Babler 64th and Anikah Hall 66th.

 

 

The girls JV and junior high teams traveled to Albany for their annual Purple Pride meet. The girls JV placed first out of three teams. There were 36 total runners. 

 

Becker's Natasha Berthiaume won the race with a time of 22:56.8, Jaden Kraus placed third (23:16.2) and Alexa Voller placed fourth (23:31.3). 

 

Rounding out Becker’s top seven runners for Becker were: Alli Garding (12th - 26:28.0), Makenna Noaiell (13th-  26:32.6), Callie Doucette (14th  - 26:51.3), and Madison McDonald (18th - 27:25.6).

 

The junior high girls did not run a full team at this race, but the girls who ran did a very nice job.  Briggs was Becker’s leader, placing seventh in the 3200 meter race with a time of 15:28.8.  Berning was 12th in 16:13.6, Babler was 15th in 16:35.6 and Leaders 16th in 16:42.3. 

 

 

The Bulldog harriers look to have fantastic performances at the Granite Ridge Conference as they prepare for their final Granite Ridge Conference cross country meet in Zimmerman Tuesday.  This will be the final race for a bulk of the cross country team as only nine Bulldog members are able to advance on for the Section 8AA team competition which will be coming up Thurs., Oct. 25.