The Becker Bulldog boys and girls cross country teams participated in the Section 8AA cross country meet Thursday in Thief River Falls. Conditions were temps in the upper 40's with a continuous light mist.
Girls Varsity CC
The top two teams at this meet qualified for the state meet to be held at St Olaf November 3.
Going into the meet, Head Coach Trish Reimer-Kealy felt her girls could end up anywhere from third to sixth. She was right, as Becker placed sixth out of 16 teams.
“There was a lot of good competition with several teams somewhat evenly matched,” she said.
The team champions were a very young Rocori team with 37 points followed by Alexandria with 52 to qualify for the team competition at state.
Reimer-Kealy said “the course was quite muddy from the previous day's rain and mist on race day.”
Dani Nuest placed 21st and was four spots away from advancing to the state meet with a time of 20:33.2. Lexi Dehmer came in just two spots behind Dani, to place 23rd with a time of 20:35.8. Adeline Kent moved up into Becker’s third-best position to finish in 33rd place with a time of 20:551.
Victoria Kolbinger ran her final race for Becker at this meet and placed 36th (21:03.6). Tasha Berthiaume ran a very nice race to earn a PR time by nearly one minute to place 41st in 21:18.3. Abby Nelson ran her second fastest time of the year, placing 52nd in 21:43.1. Kayla Gruenes rounded out the girls team in 55th with a time of 21:46.1.
“While some of the girls seemed to struggle a bit today with the mud and the stiff competition, they all ran with a lot of heart and can be very proud of their season,” said Reimer-Kealy. “Thank you to all the parents, fans and Jesse O’Neil and the school staff for the support we received this season.”
Boys Varsity CC
The Bulldog boy harriers accomplished a lot of great running as the team had their highest Section 8AA finish since becoming a Class AA school in 2005.
Jordan Gruenes crossed the line as the eighth place section finisher in 17:03.3 to qualify for the state cross country meet which will be held at St. Olaf College next week. (Jordan is the first Bulldog boy qualifier since 2014 and the eighth in program history).
Wyatt Hiltner placed 93rd as he ran the 5km race in 19:17.4; Tyson Ricker - 91st - 19:12.7; Jake Nelson - 81st - 18:55.5; Kellen Hurt - 54th - 18:16.9; Lukas Karel - 37th - 17:56.9 and Basil Ricker - 29th - 17:42.2.
Moorhead (53 points) and Bemidji (60 points) were the top two teams in the section meet and qualifies for state. Becker finished seventh with 209 points.
