The girls’ team had a spectacular race, edging out state ranked Albany to get 2nd place, and if it were a normal year, they would have advanced to the state meet.  Staples-Motley won the race with a score of 37, followed by the Knights with 82, Albany with 100 and Minnewaska with 101.  Our race plan was to get through the first mile in good shape, and then to find purple jerseys (Albany).  Everyone contributed to help us achieving our goal of qualifying for the nonexistent state meet. 

One of things I love about our teams is their sense of accountability to each other.  When they know Lexi is up front, they owe her that same effort. Macy Grosz was next for the Knights in 12th place, followed by Taylor Bennet in 16th, Terina Blascyk in 20th, Halle Foslien in 34th, Sydney Ulrich in 37th and Alexa Blume in 80th.  They all ran awesome to help us get a second place.  It’s so hard when you aren’t racing against all the teams at once to know exactly where you are in that mix.   During the race when it doesn’t seem like you have anyone to race, they still need to go hard because that will help in the end when all the team times are added together.  We’ve been telling them all year that they are a good team but they don’t get a real sense of that when you only race in three team meets all year.

Our seniors and captains on the girl’s team are Brynn Fernholz and Chloe Larue.  Their roles have changed over the seasons, but no less important.  They did exactly what they needed to do to help our new faces on the team and inexperienced racers reach our potential.  In their six years on the team, the girls’ team has qualified for the state meet four of their six years.  A pretty impressive run (pun intended) and a lot of hardware in WCA’s trophy cases.      

Staples-Motley was the team champion with 37 points and West Central Area was second with 82.  They were followed by Albany (100), Minnewaska Area (101), Eden Valley-Watkins/Kimball (201), Melrose (207), New London-Spicer (214), Pierz (262), Holdingford (262), Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta (267), Breckenridge/Wahpeton (282), Benson/KMS (305), Long Prairie-Grey Eagle (318), Paynesville (333), Ottertail Central (334), Royalton (417), Litchfield (441), Sauk Centre (455), Pillager (467), Border West (511), Ashby/Brandon-Evansville (640) and Osakis (682).   

 Here are the individual results for area runners by team:
West Central Area
1. Lexi Bright 19:10.3, 12. Macy Grosz 21:06.6, 16. Taylor Bennett 21:29.2, 20. Terina Blascyk 21:36.9, 34. Halle Foslien 22:18.2, 37. Sydney Ulrich 22:32.3, 80. Alexa Blume 23:28.2

Staples-Motley
3.Kyanna Burton 19:15.8, 4. Aften Robinson 19:28.1, 7. Audrey Brownell 20:22.2, 9. Ashley Robben 20:54.8, 14. Naila Mikhaeil 21:22.0, 45. Addisyn Cichos 22:44.6, 109. Arabella Moore 24:41.4

Breckenridge/Wahpeton
27. Gabby Baumgardner 22:00.7, 35. Rachel Gowin 22:24.9, 57. Hailee Bruce 22:59.2, 76. Kiera Wiertzema 23:21.4, 92. Taylor Bommersbach 23:56.3, 104. Madison Rabbithead 24:23.5

Ottertail Central
62. Faith Fisher 23:06.4, 65. Laney Frost 23:09.4, 66. Erika Heibel 23:11.1, 68. Grace VanErp 23:13.2, 78. Ady Tysdahl 23:23.6, 79. Rebecca Johnson 23:26.9, 82. Kyleigh Shebeck 23:29.3

Ashby/Brandon-Evansville
89. Lucea Wales 23:48.1, 131. Hannah Korkowski 26:43.6, 133. Courtney Brethorst 26:54.7, 144. Cailey Schlosser 28:00.5, 148. Kaytlyn Pattrin 29:44.3, 151. Emma Erickson 32:04.3, 152. Kiatta Korkowski 38:51.1

Border West
19. Julia Schmidt 21:36.6, 118. Addison Blume 25:07.9, 122. Ava Klindworth 25:29.7, 126. Karter Martinek 25:36.5, 130. Emily Franzese 26:33.1, 135. Braylen Schmidt 27:03.7, 136. Georgia Gallagher 27:04.8

Pillager
55. Lindy Cordes 22:57.3, 105. Ava Swanberg 24:32.6, 127. Sienna Swanberg 26:03.4, 132. Jenna Woidyla 26:48.1, 138. Ally Smith 27:14.2, 140. Kylee Wilson 27:21.6

Hillcrest Lutheran Academy
23. Katie Holzner 21:48.5,