The Becker Bulldog boys and girls cross country teams traveled across Central Minnesota with the girls competing in the Monticello Invitational and the boys in the Rockford Rocket Run Thursday afternoon. Thirteen teams competed with 86 runners.

 

The girls varsity team ran well and came home with a trophy for second place and had some outstanding performances. 

 

The course was different from last year, which was held at Vintage Golf Course.  This year, it was at Bertram Regional Park and consisted of running from an open field to going through wooded trails and alongside a lake with some sandy terrain.  

 

Becker’s triple threat of Alli Hendrickson, Lexi Dehmer and Victoria Kolbinger once again worked well together, staying near the front of the pack for the first half of the race and really moving well in the second half to place second (Hendrickson), fourth (Dehmer) and sixth (Kolbinger) with great finish kicks.  

 

Hendrickson ran the race in 19:46.45, Dehmer was at 19:49.30 (the exact same time as the third place runner) and Kolbinger once again achieved a personal record time of 20:22.61.

 

Sydney Stommes was Becker’s fourth runner and she blazed in with a great kick to place 43rd in a time of 22:37.45,  almost a full minute faster that last week. 

 

Eighth grader Maddie McDonald was Becker’s fifth runner, placing 50th with a personal record time of 23:01.29.

 

“This was her best race to date and she is improving with experience,” said the head coach. 

 

Seventh-grader Adeline Kent ran a personal record time of 23:22.75, which was good for 59th place. Rounding out the team was Gabrielle Imm in 65th place, running 20 seconds faster than last week with a time of 23:37.74.

 

Team scores: STMA 76, Becker 102, Monticello 110, Rocori 116, Hutchinson 137, Sartell 159, Irondale 170, St Cloud Tech 181, Annandale 188, Coon Rapids 206, Park Center 218, Rogers 290, Big Lake 356.

 

Becker’s JV girls also placed second with 100 points, just behind first place finishers STMA.

 

There were 12 competing teams and 207 runners.

 

Senior Allyna Storms returned for her first competition of the year and looked very strong, placing eighth with a time of 23:06.20.  Tate Spinner ran a strong race Thursday, placing 21st in 24:12.97.  

 

Callie Doucette came in 24th in 24:24.75, an improved time from last week.  Grace Smith had a phenomenal finish to place 26th in 24:33.47. Becker’s fifth runner was Kaylin Whiehle, who is a newcomer to the team this year and showing promise.  She came in 35th (25:01.52). 

 

Kayden Westin placed 56th (25:47.20) and  Alli Garding placed 60th (35;52.66) to round out the scorers for Becker.

 

The junior high girls placed sixth out of nine teams in a field of 129 runners.

 

Becker was led by Megan Gregory and Jaden Kraus, supported by Abby Nelson, Trinity Olsen-Burkman, Maddy Schmitz and Aria Webster.

 

While the girls competed at Monticello, the boys had a good day at the Rockford Rocket Run. 

 

Assistant Coach Dustin Weege accompanied the boys team to this meet where they placed fifth out of 10 competing schools and 70 runners. 

 

Coach Weege said the  course was “pretty wet and 'required some steeple chase skills”, which made the races pretty exciting.

 

In a touching gesture, the host team also provided the teams a chance to honor Jacob Wetterling.  Each runner wore the number 11 on their hand, which represents Jacob’s age and the number he wore for soccer.  The coach also read through 11 statements of encouragement from the family. 

 

Becker was led on varsity by Luke Pappenfus  as he placed fifth overall with a time of 18:33.6.  Jonathan Novak was Becker’s next top runner with a time of 19:10.0 for 14th place.

 

Basil Ricker was 26th in  19:43.9, an improvement on his last weeks time. Justin Kringler placed 33rd (20:02.4), David Myres earned a personal record of 20:58.5 for 44th place and Evan Schafer ran his first varsity meet and placed 57th in a time of 21:49.7. Bennett Edling placed 61st in 22:02.6.

 

Team scores: Waconia 36, Delano 51, Spectrum 98, Dassel-Cokato 116, Becker 121, St Francis 141, DeLaSalle 158, Providence Academy 206, Mayer Lutheran 255, Rockford 280. 

 

The Becker JV boys placed sixth out of nine teams and there were 120 runners.  

 

Becker's top runner was Lachlan Lahr, placing 32nd with 22:09.3, an improvement over last week.

 

Adrian Johnson was Becker’s next top runner, placing 43rd with a time of 22;38.8. 

 

Erik Parson placed 55th (23:10.5), Aaron Gregory 59th (23:14.3), Jake Nelson 63rd (23;17.3), Christian Riffe 72nd (23:28.5) and Cade Stommes in 80th (24:05.4). 

 

The Becker junior high boys team placed fifth out of seven teams with 54 runners.  

 

Jack Budd, Mason Doucette, Wyatt Hiltner and Tucker Schmoll did a great job of running in a pack to place 16, 17, 19, and 21st.

 

Logan Bigelow was Becker’s final point earner and Cole Wilhelm and Trenten Woolhouse rounded out the team with good efforts for the day. 

 

Becker’s next meet is Thursday in Little Falls for the Myron Ahle Lucky Lindy race.