By Bill Morgan, Staff Writer
Becker Cross Country took the varsity runners to Thief River Falls last Thursday for the preview of the Section 8 course. The meet was the Thief River Falls Booster Club Invite.
Girls CC
The girls varsity race had 16 full teams and five incomplete teams running the 5K course. There were 118 runners.
The Becker girls had a very good showing for their first meet of the season, placing third behind Rocori and Sartell-St Stephen.
Becker was led by the strong trio of eighth grader Dani Nuest placing third (20:22.7), senior captain Victoria Kolbinger fourth (20:24.0) and junior Lexi Dehmer sixth (20:40.3).
Becker’s fourth runner was Makenna Noaeill (23:06.5), who returns to cross country in her first race since seventh grade.
Abby Nelson (23:31.1) continues to be steady for Becker and was the team’s fifth runner. Madison McDonald (24:35.5) returned to the line up this year as Becker’s sixth runner. The Bulldogs also had two of their captains, Alli Garding (24:24.0) and Tate Spinner (25:44.5) run the JV race and did well.
The girls’ other captain — Bryanna Edling is still recovering from having her tonsils removed and was unable to run.
The JV and junior high teams traveled to Princeton for their first meet of the year and the JV team took first place in the 3K race with five full teams competing.
Newcomer Kayla Gruenes placed first, Jaden Kraus third, Tasha Berthiaume sixth, Callie Doucette eighth, Megan Gregory ninth, Alexa Voller 11th, and Cayla Pauman 14th. Also running were Grace Wilhelm — who took 2:30 off her time from last year — and Jayna Adu-Gyamfi and Olivia Mateyka.
Boys CC
The varsity boys had a nice showing against many of the section opponents as the Bulldogs saw improved times in comparison to their first meet times last season.
Sophomore Lukas Karel managed to better his personal record (PR) from last season by 52 seconds. Senior Basil Ricker was the first Bulldog to cross the finish line with a time of 18:04, placing 15th overall. Karel was not far behind, finishing with a time of 18:19. Jake Nelson was the next Bulldog with a time of 19:18.
Sophomore Cade Stommes and eighth grader Tyson Ricker challenged each other throughout the race and finished neck-and-neck in just over 20 minutes for the 5K race. David Myres was a little ways behind that pair as he finished in 20:20, working to transition to his autumn endurance running from his spring sprinting races. Myres was a state qualifying hurdler for the Bulldogs track & field team. Nearly eight seconds behind Myres was sophomore Wyatt Hiltner, making his varsity debut. Fellow sophomore Bennett Edling crossed the line next for the Bulldogs and looks to continue his growth.
The remainder of the Bulldog CC team traveled to Princeton and had a stellar showing as both the JV and junior high teams raced to team victories.
Ninth grader Kellen Hurt, newcoming sophomore Ethan Tobako and junior Adrian Johnson had top 10 finishes in the JV race and look to be cracking into the varsity lineup during the season.
Up Next
The Bulldogs competed Thursday at Shamrock Golf Course against Rockford. Results on the meet will appear in next week’s Citizen-Tribune.
The boys and girls look to continue their progress as they travel to Little Falls Thursday.
