Daily Globe
CANBY - Luverne’s tandem of Madison Schandelmeier and Gabrielle Ferrell claimed the top two places in the 5,000-meter varsity girls’ race at an 11-team high school cross country meet held Friday evening at the Canby Golf Course.
Dubbed as the Second Annual Canby Late Night Invite, this year’s event went off smoothly and several sparkling early-season performances were recorded.
Schandelmeier, last year’s Class A state-meet runner-up, ran an impressive time of 20:06.7 over the new longer distance for girls this fall. Ferrell was second, clocked at 20:49.3, followed by Kelsi Kramer of Sioux Falls Washingon (21:03.1) and Worthington senior Meredith Moore (21:18.1)
“Getting fourth in this meet against some really exceptional competition is a great accomplishment,” said WHS head coach Ken Henkels. “Meredith went out strong and ran close to Schandelmeier through the first half mile before dropping back to about eighth or ninth. But, she came on as the race progressed, moving all the way up to fourth by the final stretch run, beating Canby’s lead runner (Natalie Dinius, sixth, 21:46.6), which I don’t think she has done before. It was a very good first meet at the longer distance for Meredith.”
Sioux Falls Washington runners took the top three places in the boys’ race over the same course, with Warrior senior Alec Kray posting a winning time of 16:56.5.
Marshall’s Chase Van Keulen finished fourth (17:37.1), followed by Canby/Minnesota sophomore Andrew Wollum (17:50.4).
Area boys in the top-20 included Murray County Central/Fulda senior Clayton Hartle (seventh, 18:13.3), MCC/F senior Jack Erickson (12th, 18:34.6), Worthington senior Tyler VanHove (15, 18:57.7) and MCC/F junior Isaiah Olsem (16, 18:59.6).
There were a total of 63 individual finishers and 10 complete team scores in the boys’ meet.
Washington won the team title with a low score of 44 points (1-2-3-18-20), while Marshall was a close second with 53 points (4-8-10-14-17).
MCC/F was third with a score of 104 (7-12-16-34-35), followed by Redwood Valley (121), Worthington (122), Watertown, S.D. (148), Canby/Minneota (183), Willmar Community Christian (201), Luverne (214) and Lakeview (271). Tracy-Milroy-Balaton was incomplete.
Worthington’s top five (scoring runners) behind VanHove --- who Henkels said “ran really well from start to finish” --- were sophomore Jacob Prunty (23, 19:19.7), senior Cameron Jenson (26, 19:26.9), eighth-grader Adam Koller (28, 19:55.3) and sophomore Jackson Bonnett (30, 20:02.1).
In the girls’ meet, which had 59 finishers and seven complete team scores, the team title was also claimed by Sioux Falls Washington (52), followed by C/M (77), Watertown (86), Luverne (87), RV (101), MCC/F (141) and Worthington (153). Lakeview, WCC and T-M-B were incomplete and Marshall’s girls did not enter the meet.
Luverne’s Madi Reisdorfer (15, 22:36) and T-M-B’s Sarita Hook (18, 22:59.9) finished among the top-20 girls, while Tuva Straume (23, 23:17.9) paced MCC/F.
Worthington’s top five (after Moore) were sophomore Jessica Darling (29, 24:12.4), sophomore Maria Contreras (36, 25:58.2), senior Rachel Koller (41, 27:32.2) and junior Camila Wede (43, 29:16.8).
“For the first time racing 5,000 meters, our girls all did pretty well,” summed up Henkels. “It will be interesting to watch how much each of them improves as the season continues.”
