The West Central Area Cross Country teams competed in the Milaca Mega Meet on Saturday with the boys winning the meet by twenty points and the girls finishing in fifth place.

“After a rain delay, the races began late so they combined the junior high boys and girls which made some very large fields of racers,” said WCA Head Coach John Van Kempen.  “There were about 40 teams competing in the varsity boys race after a couple thousand junior high racers already ran the course so the conditions were muddy and sloppy in parts of the race.” 

Jacob Bright finished in first place in 16:47 followed by Jack Van Kempen in 9th, Kade Runge in 10, Alex Salwasser in 21st, Kyle Schill in 28th, Reuben Swanson in 73rd and Shad Swanson in 105th.  

“With so many racers, it’s hard to get a handle on how the team is doing so the idea is to just keep passing as many as you can down the stretch,” noted Van Kempen.  “We’ve had some struggles with illnesses so we really needed everyone to run well today.  Alex had a great race and we fully expect Kyle to move up as we progress through the second half of the season.  The boys have won the Division 4 (small school) race four of the past five years.  We need that experience of competing in a large field of runners because it’s similar to our section meet near the end of October.” 

Lexi Bright led West Central Area, finishing 14th and Teagan Nelson was 23rd.  There were 230 racers in the girls’ varsity competition.  Brynn Fernholz was next in 41st place, followed by Taylor Bennett in 67th, Alexa Blume in 75th and Brooklyn Runge in 169th. 

“The girls finished in fifth place as a team and continue to improve,” commented Coach Van Kempen.  “That’s a large field and we have three girls with a lot of experience and a few still getting that experience of what’s needed to compete at a high level.  They are improving and we will need a solid few weeks of practice prior to our conference meet and section meet.  Our next meet will be in Fergus Falls which is a great opportunity for our fans to come and cheer us on.”

The John Hermes Invitational will be held at Pebble Lake Golf Course in Fergus Falls on Thursday.