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Mike Anderson returns for a 36th year as Head Coach of the Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Rebels Girls and Boys Cross Country Teams. The boys’ will be led by Owen Winter who as a freshman last year earned All-Conference (4th) and All-Section (8th) honors on the way to a 58th place finish in the Class A State Meet. The young girls’ team was able to field a full varsity team, allowing them to compete at the HOL Conference and Section 8A meets and look forward to building off that experience in 2023.
Joining Winter as returning varsity team members are seniors Isaac Gifford, Louis Gaytan and Andrew Nielsen, freshman Drew Martin and 8th-grader Jed Toms. Freshman Sebastian Gaytan will be moving into a varsity position this fall. Winter, Gifford and Louis Gaytan will serve as team captains for the Rebels.
“The top three runners have trained successfully during the off season and will be able to hold their own with any Class A team in the area,” noted Coach Anderson. “There were no losses to graduation this past year, but due to some other top five runners not returning, the 4th and 5th scorers will lack experience or be an underclassman. Their development during the season will determine our success at both the conference and section meets. Several of the Rebels have put in an extensive amount of off-season work and look to be at mid-season form as compared to last year. The varsity roster will be filled by an assorted mix of seniors and talented underclassmen. Depth is always a concern and the junior high squad will be incomplete during the 2023 season.”
Matt Ahonen will serve as a Volunteer Coach with the Middle School runners.
Coach Anderson lists Park Rapids as the top team in Section 8A and Perham as the number on team in the Heart O’ Lakes Conference.
On the girls’ side, DGF is led by varsity captain and sophomore Isabel Toms. Other returning runners are eighth-graders Brooklyn Blankenstaff, Gabby Gaytan, Brooklyn Grubb and Mia Varriano. Another eighth-grader, Arwa Baghzali will also be counted on to fill out the varsity roster.
“The girls’ program has always had difficulty in getting numbers out for cross country, relative to other fall sports programs,” noted Coach Anderson. “Practices and meets can be grueling and mentally difficult in training to run a 5K. The majority of the members of the program are in middle school. It is going to take some time to develop a team of competitive 5K runners at the varsity level.”
Anderson says Hawley in the Section 8A favorite with Perham being the top team in the HOL.