The Big Lake boys varsity cross country team won another meet last week at the 14-team ROCORI Invitational at River Oaks Golf Course in Cold Spring.     

“The boys’ varsity was without their normal fourth and fifth runners for this meet,” said Coach Todd Trutna.  “Usually that would really sink a team’s chances of placing very high.”

But that wasn’t the case, as some of the other runners stepped up with personal best times to help the defending state champs win the title.

Owen Layton won the individual title, breaking the 16-minute mark for the first time and crossing the finish line in 15:45.6.

Kade Layton also finished under 16 minutes and took second in 15:57.6.

Sophomore Jack Leuer had an outstanding race, placing fifth in 16:14.9.

“Our big three may be the best 1-2-3 combo in the state at any class,” said Trutna.

David Guyse ran a personal best and finished 12th in 17:31.8. Freshman Alton Ahamed was a few steps behind in 17:35.8 to take 16th.

Carter Erickson and Gavin Flavin both finished under 19:30 as the team’s sixth and seventh runners.

Final team scores were: Big Lake 36; Fergus Falls 97; Alexandria 108; ROCORI 123; Cambridge-Isanti 128; Foley 171; St. Cloud Tech. 201; Annandale 201; Willmar 213; Princeton 242; Little Falls 280; Sauk Rapids-Rice 293; Thief River Falls 300; Fargo South 304.

Emilee Doperalski ran her best time of the season and led the Big Lake girls varsity, finishing 36th in 21:51. It was her first time breaking 22 minutes this season. 

Campbell Slattery finished with her best time of the season of 23:00 to finish 52nd.

Jadyn Rust, Nicole Rempel, Georgia Morris and Elsie Johnson all finished  within 20 seconds of each other. Rylie Ostrom was close behind as the other Big Lake finisher. 

“Every varsity girl ran their best time of the season at this meet,” said Trutna. “This team is gaining confidence, and I look to see several more races with PRs across the board.”

Luke Hugo had his best race of the season to finish second overall in the boys JV 5000 meters with a time of 18:40.

Gavin Vold broke the 20-minute mark and took 22nd in 19:53.2, helping the Hornets place fifth of 11 teams.

For the middle school boys, Max Baron led the Hornets in 12th place with a time of 12:23.  Theo Johnson and Judd Layton paced each other for much of the race and finished in 16th (12:33) and 19th (12:36) respectively.  The boys finished fourth in the team competition.  

In the JV girls race, newcomer sophomore Emily Dietrich was the top finisher in her first race of the season with a 46th place in 25:31. Alayna Boe and Brynn Scheer were the next two to finish in 71st and 72nd place, both recording personal best times  for the season.  

The Hornets competed in the Foley Invitational Thursday, results to follow next week.