CROSS COUNTRY TEAM WRAPS UP SEASON AT SECTION MEET

SECTION 3A CROSS COUNTRY

Mischke, Marten lead respective TMB/WWG teams

Logan Petersen didn’t go out with the bang he had hoped for in his final cross country meet.

The senior, fighting some pain throughout Thursday’s Section 3A Championship at the Madison Country Club, finished 123rd overall with a time of 22:55.

“I didn’t really feel too good; I have a side stitch — it’s something with the side of your chest, when you breathe, you have a sharp pain,” Petersen said. “It usually goes away, but today it didn’t. It really affects your running a lot.”

Petersen isn’t the biggest fan of the Madison course, either, as he much prefers more diverse trails like in Tracy.

“The two laps, it got really tedious,” he said. “It’s the same thing over and over. I don’t really like courses where you do two laps that are the same.”

Redwood Valley took three of the top four spots to win the section title, while the Panthers finished 12th out of 20 teams. Murray County Central was third behind Windom Area.

Weston Marten paced the TMB/WG boys with a 35thplace finish at 18:59; Owen Beier was 66th at 19:57; Jackson Jenniges was 74th at 20:21; Taylor Squires was 77th at 20:29; Noah Schmidt was 102nd at 21:42; Jaxter Pfarr was 112th at 22:06.

“The boys put in a lot of hard work this season to move up six spots,” TMB/WWG coach Billy Dean said. “This was Weston’s second time running a sub-19-minute time which is a really great accomplishment for him. Owen was our second boys runner across with a new PR time. This was his first time running a sub-20 time. He ran really well and has improved so much over the year. Jackson finished with a new PR time of 20:21 — he ran a great race and PR’d by 30 seconds.

“Our fourth boy across the finish line was Taylor; he has been battling through some hip discomfort lately and has toughed it out for our team. Noah ran a good race and improved a lot through the season,” Dean added. “Jaxter has been battling some discomfort lately and he battled through it and he had a very good season.”

The boys’ team took 12 place out of 20 teams — last year, it finished in 18th place.

For the girls, Wabasso’s Elsie Leopold was first overall with a time of 19:05, a whopping 27 seconds ahead of Redwood Valley’s Addie Thomes. MCC’s Mara Clarke was ninth overall, just missing out on a state berth (the top six runners advance, along with both winning teams).

TMB/WWG’s Miranda Mischke was the Panthers’ top overall finisher with a PR of 21:19, good for 20th place. Lainey Jackels was 43rd at 22:21 (PR); Gracelynn Struchen was 108th at 25:53 (PR); Evelyn Rentschler took 116th place with a time of 26:52; Stella Munson was 121st at 29:20; Jaeda Nelson was 124th at 33:30; and Payton Daniels was 125th at 37:06 for the girls, who finished in 16th place.

“Miranda has had a great season, placing in nine out of 11 of our meets,” said Dean. “Lainey had a great season and improved so much throughout the year. Gracelynn ran a great race and improved so much throughout the season. Evelyn ran a great race and has been a leader for our girls this year. Stella has run well all year, and she has so much more. We look forward to seeing her continue to improve through her career.

“Jaeda improved a lot through the year, and she works hard everyday to keep getting better,” Dean continued. “Payton has battled through some ankle injuries all year, but we never hear her complain about it. She always competes hard and has improved so much this year. Our girls’ team competed very hard at sections. We are very proud of the effort they gave and the improvement they have had this season.”

Dean said the future is bright for a team that has showed steady improvement throughout the season.

“We are so proud of our team and the improvements that they have made this year,” Dean said. “We have a young team, and we look forward to the years to come. I want to thank my coaching staff of Mitchell Buerkle and Kat Aviles for a great year — they are both amazing coaches and they helped our athletes so much this year. I also want to thank our fans for coming out to all of races this year. It means a lot to have great support. We look forward to keep improving and to stay competitive. “

• The good news for the upstart program is that it will have all but two current runners back, as Petersen and Adam Hippe were the lone seniors this year. Dean shared his thoughts on the pair: Adam Hippe

“Adam came out this year for the first time. He was one of our alternates for our boys’ varsity team. He ran hard all year and he always gave us his best effort in practice and at meets. We are very proud of him as a coaching staff and he will be missed next season.”

Logan Petersen

“Logan has been out for cross country before, but he didn’t run last year. I am very happy that he decided to come back out this season. He had a great year and had a lot of PR’s through out the season. He gave his best effort through out the year, and that shows with how much he improved. We are very proud of Logan and he will be missed next year.

“We wish the best of luck to both of those boys in their future, and I look forward to being able to coach them both for one more season of wrestling,” Dean concluded.