PREP BOYS' CROSS COUNTY: Worthington’s Musa wins in first race of season

MARSHALL — Running in his first race of the season Monday afternoon, Worthington’s senior sensation Mubarik Musa didn’t seem to miss a beat and ran a blazing 5,000-meter time of 15:44.1 to win the boys’ varsity individual title at the Marshall Invitational cross country meet at Independence Park.

Worthington finished fourth in the final team standings, totaling 87 points. Host Marshall won the 10-team meet with 28 points, while Redwood Valley (64) and Canby/Minneota/Lincoln HI (74) were second and third, respectively. Murray County Central/Fulda (151), Springfield/Cedar Mountain (164) and Windom (164) also fielded complete teams, while Adrian, Pipestone Area and Tracy-Milroy-Balaton were incomplete.

Musa and Adrian’s Jase Pater (sixth overall, 17:13.0) were the only area runners to finish in the top 10, as all five of Marshall’s scoring runners were in the top 10. C/M/LHI’s Nick Stoks, who stayed with Musa for most of the first half of the race, took second with a fine time of 16:02.2, while a pair of runners from Redwood Valley earned the remaining spots among the top-10 finishers.

“It sure was nice to see Mubarik back running competitively once again,” WHS head coach Ken Henkels said.

“He’s been bothered by a knee injury and didn’t run in any of our first three meets, but he looked strong today. Our other boys also ran well and continued a trend in which their order of finish always seems to be a little bit different — which is good and helps them push each other during the race.”

While Musa — who has won several meets throughout his career — claimed an early lead and ran away with another gold-medal performance, Trojan teammate Nathan Landwehr provided a top-15 finish (15th overall, 14th team-wise) with a time of 18:24.1.

Matthew Jirele (23rd, 21st, 18:55.4), Amanuel Fissiha (26th, 24th, 19:14.7) and Ian Stewart (29th, 27th, 19:22.1) rounded out Worthington’s scoring. Gordy Moore (19:50.1) and Oliver Wolyniec (21:22.4) finished 33rd and 49th, respectively, for the Trojans.

Marshall’s trio of Chad DeAustin (third, 17:04.3), Grant VanKeulen (fourth, 17:04.8) and Andrew Bell (fifth, 17:06.1) each finished within two seconds of each other, just over a minute behind Stoks. Pater wasn’t too far back in sixth, while his teammate Kody Henning ran a time of 20:54.0 and finished in 47th.

Alex Solheim led MCC/F with a 16th-place overall finish, clocking a time of 18:26.7. The Rebels’ Aaron Boock (19:27.4) was 31st in the 59-runner race.

Windom was led by Ryan Helmoski’s 17th-place finish in a time of 18:31.2, while Reed Salmon (22nd, 18:51.4) paced T-M-B, and Matt Hamersma (34th, 19:58.7) led the way for PA.

Tags: cross country, pipestone area, murray county central, tracy-milroy-balaton, sports, prep, worthington, trojans, adrian, windom, fulda