The Becker boys and girls cross country teams participated in the Lucky Lindy meet in Little Falls last Thursday and bot teams performed well.

Boys Team

The event was the 56th Annual Myron Ahle Lucky Lindy meet which is co-named for one of this year’s Hall of Fame coach inductees who started the Little Falls cross country program. 

With 22 teams in attendance at the meet, the Bulldogs battled with a number of factors including heat, large fields of runners, and the race was altered a bit in anticipation of some storms.  

Three freshman in Jacob Peterson, Alex Schermer, and Jonathan Drury led the JV Bulldogs for much of the 5k race with Peterson and Schermer pulling ahead in the final mile, finishing with times of 23:05 and 23:07.  Drury was behind just a bit in 23:35 and was closely trailed by Junior teammate Noah Bloch, who was striving to catch up and encourage Drury.  

Landon Lahr (25:33) was the next Bulldog to cross followed by Vincent Martin (25:49).  The next two yielded some strong season bests as Denlan Harmoning improved his time by 27 seconds while Aiden Frommelt improved 39 seconds.  Thomas Cota approached his performance from last week, but was just 12 seconds behind that.

Next came the Boys Varsity race and the team of seven Bulldogs runners were back a bit in the first half-mile, but made good use of some downhills in order to start their journey moving forward.  The first miles for the team were all under 6:45.  The Bulldogs chipped away at competitors one-by-one and made gains during the race.   Co-captain Ryan Nelson and freshman Alex Kinney stepped up and pushed forward with their first varsity races.  Nelson ran his 5k in 22:07 while Kinney (21:11) accomplished an incredible season best in his varsity debut as he improved 1:16 for his 5k time.  

Caleb Reckelberg and Co-captain Tyson Ricker also pushed onward to great races as they achieved a five second season best for Reckelberg while Ricker earned a four second personal record in his performance.  Ricker’s time and competitive racing managed to earn third place by edging out the runner from Rocori by 1/10th of a second and making Ricker the top AA finisher of the day.  

“Ricker ran a nice, smart race to end up as he did as he continues his journey toward his goals,” said Becker Coach Dustin Weege.  “He’s doing well at gaining understandings of the other racers and utilizing his assets well to finish appropriately.”  

Mason Becker finished with a time of 19:00 and Jase Tobako (19:08) was shortly behind while battling the heat.  Next was Reckelberg and Kinney followed by the Ryan duo with Co-captain Ryan Boecker (21:31) and Nelson.  Together, the Bulldogs finished 15th in the large field of A, AA, and AAA schools from which several are ranked highly in the state.  

“We were pleased to see the reality that we placed ahead of four section teams while just two scored ahead of us,” said Weege.  “The Myron Ahles/Lucky Lindy meet really gives us a good look at quality competition and we are ready to put in the work to make gains and be competitive within our section and in the state.  The day had its ups and downs but we are continuing to progress.”

Unfortunately, the Junior High racers lost out on their opportunity to compete as the whirlwind of inclement weather came into the area. 

The Bulldogs traveled to Buffalo for the Bison Invitational before also embarking on the traditional Homecoming Football run. Check back next week for reports on those events.

Girls Team

Becker’s varsity girls placed ninth out of the 19+ full teams that competed. Alexandria placed first. Each of the top nine placing  teams is ranked in state in their respective classes.

Becker’s girls ran a very competitive race despite the fact that two of their runners did not finish the race.  The heat got the better of Bella Duncombe and Ella McDonald but Coach Trisha Kealy anticipates both girls returning to competition in full form. 

“We are so happy to hear that as we were concerned and had many inquiries from other teams as well, hoping that things were ok,” said Kealy. 

For the third meet in a row Becker had a new runner take the top spot, which makes for healthy races for the girls to continue pushing one another to be their best. This week, Olivia Babler led the Bulldogs with a 28th place finish in a PR time of 21:20.2.  Coming in 41st and 43rd were Lexi Rose in 21:45.6 and Brooklyn Karel in a PR time of 21:59.0. 

The final two Becker girls finished 58th and 59th.  Katelyn Brower  was excited to run a PR time of 22:28.6 and Tasha Berthiaume continues to bring her times down, running 22:32.6.  

“The girls did really well staying together as a pack, and supporting another for most of the race,” said Kealy.  “We look forward to having the entire team back at the next race to see our progress continue.”

The JV girls had a great day placing second to Perham. Alea Briggs and Kayla Gruenes placed fifth and sixth (23:29.5 PR time for Alea) and 23:24.5 season best for Kayla.  

“Kayla ran in second place for most of the race, pushing herself the whole way with Alea not far behind,” said Kealy. “Alea had a great finishing kick to get her PR time.”

In Becker’s other scoring spots for Becker’s JV, they hade Raelee Lyon run a season best time by 20 seconds for  14th place, Natalie Trenz 24:42 for 16th and Regan Hausmann 24:54.3 for 17th.

“The entire group of Becker runners is working hard and pushing one another to be the best they can be,” said Becker’s head coach. “We need to give a couple shout outs to our managers, who are doing a great job as always. Abi, Chloe and Emilia are the best!” 

“The Perham team showed wonderful sportsmanship when they worked together to move their large team tent over to cover Bella and keep her protected from the incoming bad weather.  They were very helpful and kind.”

Becker’s next race was in Buffalo on Thursday.