“The Milaca Mega Meet, advertised as the largest meet in the US was back and it did not disappoint,” said Perham Head Coach Jeff Morris.  “First off on Friday Jakob McCleary competed at the Roy Griak Invitational in the Gold Division running at 16:30. Fast forward less than 24 hours and our boys without Jakob, win the Milaca D3 title by 2 points over a really talented Park Rapids team. We knew going in without Jakob things were gonna be tough but our team need this for themselves and to prove they can compete at the top of the state. What people forget is that our entire lineup is made up of guys who are really young and don't have much varsity experience. Each meet we are discovering ourselves and wow did we find out something great about this group with the response they had today. Leading the boys was Caden Doll who was 4th overall and showing he is potential upfront. Not too far behind was Bjorn Anderson 11th place, who returns after dealing with illness, and Micah Thompson 15th, both running extremely solid times. Just off our front group was frosh Carter Flatau who ran a personal best of 18:03. Rounding out the Top 7 was Bradyn Glorvigen (18:38) personal best, Blake Swenson, and 8th grader Dylan Guck. It is awesome to see the boys win in a solid field. Milaca is so fun to be at because you can compare it to the other divisions. For us, the D4 has a lot of the teams we will compete against. After today our guys know we can compete with anyone in our class and will keep pushing each other in practice. Next week we will compete as a full lineup for just 2nd time this season in Willmar with some great competition.”

Morris was very excited about the performance about the Perham girls, saying, “the girls were just plain awesome today and are making jumps of their own. The boys won by 2 and the girls lost by 2 to #3 ranked St. Cloud Cathedral. Gracie Morris had a fantastic race running 19:40 good for 4th and was the top runner in Class A in our race. When you compare to other Divisions that have schools in our class she beat a number of ranked runners including running the same time as the #6 girl from Minnewaska Area today. Just as exciting was to see our 2,3,4 runners pack together behind Gracie once again led by Quincy Anderson with Leelou Novotny and Liz Birkeland closing a huge gap today. Liz was just awesome today and has made a huge leap these past few weeks. She is returning to some familiar territory with her experience as a varsity runner. These 3 girls were 10, 11, & 12 overall all running season bests. Today we got a good bump with our 5th runner with Aspen Rohde really starting to mix it up and drop time each week. Rounding out the top 7 was Kaia Starzl and Lauryn Rustad who were both just a few seconds ahead of season bests. Our girls are gaining so much confidence and are just excited to continue to push each other. We have so much depth in our girl's program right now with our 8th grade and 10th-grade groups both finishing 3rd in Milaca which is not easy as the grade races do not separate the classes. This depth from Junior High and JV are pushing our varsity girls to breakthroughs. It is just awesome!”

Varsity Boys D3 Team Results
1. Perham 96, 2. Park Rapids Area 98, 3. GNK 135

Individual Results (169 runners)
4. Caden Doll 17:20
11. Bjorn Anderson 17:29
14. Micah Thompson 17:36
28. Carter Flatau 18:03
45. Brayden Glorvigen 18:38
62. Blake Swenson 18:55
81. Dylan Guck 19:12

Varsity Girls D3 Team Results
1. St. Cloud Cathedral 54, 2. Perham 56, 3. Proctor 110

Individual Results (156 runners)
4. Gracie Morris 19:40
10. Quincy Anderson 20:09
11. Leelou Novotny 20:10
12. Liz Birkeland 20:15
30. Aspen Rohde 21:17
37. Kaia Starzl 21:43
61. Lauryn Rustad 22:27