Runck, Piotter go 1-2, Blomgren is 5th, Garcia de la Cruz 10th, Gardiner 12th
Wolverine senior Nathan Runck broke away shortly after the gun, and led the remaining pack of 58 Red Rock Conference boys runners the entire 5000 meters of the varsity race during the conference meet held yesterday (Monday, October 16), at the Mountain Lake Golf Course to claim the gold medal. Backed by Runck’s first-place, Maroon-and-Silver scorers paced the Mountain Lake Area (MLA) boys to the team title. Junior Dalton Piotter shook off would-be contenders for 2nd place; while Ryan Blomgren, also a junior, finished strong in 5th; sophomore Emilio Garcia de la Cruz closed in 10th – all medal winners – with junior Josiah Gardiner close with a 12th into the chute.
And, in the varsity girls run, Murray County Central/Fulda’s (MCC/F) freshman Morgan Gehl also handled the 56-harrier field with ease, repeating as the champion, and leading the depth-filled Rebels to the girls’ championship trophy.
Red Rock Conference varsity boys 5K
“The MLA boys are conference champs!!! We had a very balanced team effort to hold off a very tightly-packed MCC/F Rebel squad (the five-time defending champions),” a charged-up MLA Head Coach Kyle Blomgren stated. “We talked about what it would take to win the conference, and most of those things happened. I was very pleased with the effort our top three (Nathan Runck, Dalton Piotter, and Ryan Blomgren) guys gave – all finishing in the top five. We also saw nice races from Emilio Garcia de la Cruz and Josiah Gardiner. Logan Pankonin had another career PR (personal record). Other career PRs were run by Paxton Morin and Brandon Lougsaphakady in the Junior Varsity (JV) race.”
Runck cruised to victory with a time of 16:57.1. Meanwhile, Piotter outmaneuvered Adrian’s Brady Henning and MCC/F sophomore Justin Clarke, breaking away for the silver medal with a time of 17:14.1. Both of these Wolverine runners are students at Red Rock Central. Another key to the MLA boys’ team win was Blomgren’s fifth-place finish (17:52.5), holding off four from MCC/F – junior Nathan Everson (18:16.8), freshman Maverick Beckmann (18:20.6), junior Cameron Kresko (18:22.1) and junior Spencer Wajer (18:25.3). This quartet placed 6-9 for MCC/F, with less than a nine-second spread between the four.
The finishes of the 4th and 5th Wolverines (scores of a team’s top five finishers are tallied; lowest score wins) clinched the team win. Garcia de la Cruz (10th overall, ninth team scoring, 18:36.4) and junior Josiah Gardiner (12th overall, 10th team scoring, 19:06.9) to back up the trio of MLA’s lead runners.
MLA’s winning tally of 26 came on the team places 1-2-4-9-10, while the Rebels countered with team places 3-5-6-7-8 for their total of 29.
Five complete teams (MLA, MCC/F, Southwest Minnesota Christian/Edgerton, Heron Lake-Okabena, Ellsworth) competed in the meet, with Adrian running incomplete.
+ Remaining varsity boys finishes and times:
- Emmanuel Fentanez – 17th, 19:36.
- Logan Pankonin – 24th, 20:25.
- Caden Swoboda – 31st, 21:14.
- Seth Klassen – 34th, 21:16.
- Paxton Morin – 35th, 12:19.
- Ben Bartsch – 40th, 22:07.
- Dima Hanson – 41st, 22:14.
- Brandon Louangsaphakdy – 43rd, 22:38.
- Thavien Xayachak – 49th, 23:05.
- Drayton Klassen – 54th, 23:54.
- Landon Boldt – 58th, 24:59.
Red Rock Conference varsity girls 5K
“Our girls were able to put together some nice packs, but, unfortunately, we didn’t compete in the part of the race that we would have needed to improve our team score,” reflected Coach Blomgren. “Individually, I was really pleased with Anika Fast and Kate Janzen’s races. Both girls looked strong throughout the race and really kicked it in hard at the finish line. We plan to do a little speed work with the girls to quicken their feet up a bit as we prepare for the section meet in Madison on Thursday, October 26.”
Gehl breezed to the conference gold medal, running alone much of the way, with a 5K time of 19:02.0.
The Wolverines were led by freshman Anika Fast’s 16th-place finish with a time of 23:15. Additional MLA girls in team scoring included Mercedes Saengosoth (21st, 24:06), Kate Janzen (25th, 24:36), Riley Schroeder (27th, 24:40) and Olivia Klassen (28th, 24:44).
MCC/F (1-5-8-11-12) won with 47 points, while SWC/E (2-7-9-10-13) was second with 41 points. HL-O was third in the team scoring with 73 (3-6-18-22-24), followed by Adrian with 84 (4-14-15-20-31) and MLA with 115 points (16-21-25-26-27). Ellsworth had no runners in the race.
+ Remaining varsity girls finishes and times:
- Tiegan Meyer – 29th, 24:53.
- Sara Quiring – 31st, 25:31.
- Jordan Wright – 34th, 26:52.
- Aura Spry – 35th, 26:53.
- Sierra Perkins – 36th, 26:54.
- Summer Janzen – 40th, 27:41.
- Jorja Lepp – 43rd, 28:01.
- Cyenna Voshage Hampel – 48th, 29:16.
- Alina Inthamthivath – 49th, 29:43.
- Kaiya Sayavong – 51st, 31:09.
- Kyla Perkins – 52nd, 31:13.
- Elizabeth Linscheid – 53rd, 31:25.
- Emma Stade – 55th, 34:11.
- Amy Bartsch – 56th, 36:01.
HL-O’s Salentiny, MCC/F’s Bakke win Junior High races
HL-O sixth-grader Tim Salentiny took the lead halfway through the junior high boys’ race and won by 15 seconds with a time of 8:00.5. MCC/F, which won the team title, was led by eighth-grader Rylan Engelkes (8:15.8) and seventh-grader Simon Spittle (8:17.3) who finished second and third, respectively.
Luke Klassen (8:46) paced the Junior High boys with a 7th-place finish.
The remaining boys Junior High roster was as follows:
- Ian Penner – 12th, 9:14.
- Andrew Rasavong – 13th, 9:26.
- Chandlor Phoulom – 16th, 9:50.
- Mark Quiring – 17th, 10:26.
- Aiden Penner – 20th, 11:36.
- Landon Morin – 21st, 12:01.
MCC/F seventh-grader Megan Bakke won the 2,000-meter junior high girls’ race with a time of 8:37.2 and seventh-grade teammates Ashley Overgaauw (8:39.3) and Amanda Overgaauw (8:40.4) finished second and third, leading the Rebels to the team title. MCC/F had seven of the first eight finishers.
MLA had two Junior High girls running the course. Shyann Ober finished 14th with a time of 10:15 and Milana Ivashchenko was 18th with 16:00.
