The Becker Bulldogs cross country team attended the Monticello Invitational at the Vintage Golf Course in Otsego Thursday afternoon. 

 

The weather was ideal for running, much cooler than last week.

 

This meet had some very good teams attending and the reason is because Monticello will be hosting the Section  8AA meet later on this season. That meet is the qualifier for the state CC meet.

 

Eighteen teams took part in the girls race with Willmar and Marshall being ranked in the top 10 in the state for class AA and Annandale ranked in the class A top 10.

 

The individual race was won by Alexandria's Bethany Hasz in 18:15.77. She and her sister Meghan are the number one and number two-ranked runners in class AA. 

 

Meghan, however, was not able to participate due to injury.

 

There were 120 runners in the race and Becker's first runner was Alli Hendrickson, who placed 11th in a fine field of talent at 19:22.81.  

 

“She is proving that she should be able to hold her own in any competition,” said Head Coach Trish Reimer-Kealy.  “(It’s) very helpful to get competition of this caliber.”

 

Lexi Dehmer (20:23.10) and Julia Bengston (20:32.41) were again Becker’s number two and number three runners. They placed 27th and 30th and again worked well together.

 

Victoria Kolbinger ran 22:20.78 for 75th, Alli Garding 22:28.70 for 76th, Tate Spinner 23:07.88 for 91st and Siera Knick 23:58.53 for 103rd.   Each of these girls ran personal record times in their second race at the new 5K distance. 

 

Team Scores: Willmar 42, Marshall 53, St Cloud Tech 144, Alexandria 161, STMA 167, Bemidji 183, Monticello 191, Annandale 208, Becker 215, Moorhead 225, Brainerd 262, Rocori 266, Hutchinson269, Coon Rapids 415, Cooper 448, Big Lake 471,Little falls 504, Rogers 528.

 

The boys individual was won by Cooper's Garrett Williams in 16:15.31.  Caleb Foster again led the Becker boys, placing 45th (17:57.18). Jonathan Novak (18:39.95) 80th, Keith Sorenson (18:44.16) 84th, Olsen Pancoast (18:57.95) 94th, Luke Pappenfus (19:18.45) finished 104th, Sam Somrock (19:27.83) 114th and Basil Ricker (20:09.70) was 128th.

 

There were 137 runners in the race. Keith Sorenson, Pancoast Pappenfus and Ricker all earned their new personal records in this race.

 

Team Scores: Sartell 89, Willmar 119, Rocori 163, Moorhead 180, Alexandria 184, Little Falls 191, Bemidji 209, STMA 216, Marshall 221, Brainerd 256, Annandale 280, Coon Rapids 303, St. Cloud Tech 320, Monticello 324, Hutchinson 339, St. Cloud Cathedral 342, Becker 407, Big Lake 414, Cooper 470, Rogers 550.

 

The Becker JV girls placed 10th out of 15 teams and were led by Sydney Stommes in 31st (23:07.37), Jada Rositas in 53rd (24:26.20), Callie Doucette in 56th (24:26.87), Allyna Storms 61st (24:39.58) and Gabrielle Imm 62nd (24:45.87). There were 192 runners.

 

The Becker JV boys placed 18th out of 19 teams. Lachlan Lahr 171st (21:22.82), Brett  Parson 179th (21:30.84), Erik Parson 242 (23:01.20), Brendan Potter 244 (23:02.82) and Logan Lahr 318 (25:18.8).

 

The Becker junior high girls were led by Olivia Mateyka and Jaden Kraus for girls and Bennett  Edling and Aaron Gregory for the boys.

 

“(It was) a great day for all the Becker runners,” said the head coach.

 

Becker’s next meet will be a large invitational next Thursday at Little Falls.