SLAYTON - Running on the hills of the Slayton Country Club Tuesday afternoon, the well-balanced Worthington Trojans posted a convincing team victory in the 5,000-meter varsity boys’ race, while Pipestone Area sophomore Michael Suda claimed another individual title.
In the girls’ race, the Arrows made it a sweep as sophomore Angel Martens won that event, finishing 14 seconds ahead of Worthington senior Meredith Moore, who led the Trojans to a third-place team performance.
Suda ran the challenging course in 17:12, while Windom Area junior John Irwin (17:44), Murray County Central/Fulda senior Jack Erickson (17:46), Canby/Minneota sophomore Anthony Wollum (17:48), MCC/F senior Clayton Hartle (17:59) and Southwest Christian/Edgerton senior Dillon Mulske (18:00) took the next five places.
Worthington senior Tyler Van Hove entered the chute right behind Mulske with a seventh-place time of 18:01, leading the Trojans, who had six runners finish among the top 15.
Supporting Van Hove’s lead-run effort were eighth-grader Adam Koller (10th, 18:24), freshman Andrew Huber (11, 18:25), sophomore Nathan Schuck (12, 18:29), sophomore Jacob Prunty (14, 18:36) and sophomore Jackson Bonnett (15, 18:39).
In the team scoring, the top five Trojans tallied a low score of 49 points (6-9-10-11-13), 23 better than Windom’s second-place total of 72 (2-7-12-24-27). MCC/F (3-5-15-25-26) was a close third with 74 points, followed by PA (84), Martin County West (97), C/M (139) and Tracy-Milroy-Balaton (199). SWC/E and Jackson County Central were both incomplete.
“We had a super effort from our top six, who all competed very well,” said Worthington head coach Ken Henkels. “They all ran together as a tight pack with Tyler having the strongest finish of the group, moving ahead of the others late in the race.”
Henkels was especially pleased with the performance of Schuck, who finished closer to Koller and Huber than he has in past meets. “Nathan came through for us in a big way.”
Isaac Taade (eighth, 18:22) and Nickolas Green (13, 18:30) were important in Windom’s strong team showing, while MCC/F’s Isaiah Olsem (16, 18:46), the PA trio of Lucas Greibel (18, 19:07), Matthew Kennedy (19, 19:08) and Josh Homann (20, 19:09), along with JCC’s Carter Heinrichs (21, 19:10) also ran fine races.
Martens clocked a winning time of 20:27 in the girls’ race, while Moore (20:41), PA junior Livia Wallace (20:46), C/M’s Natalie Dinius (21:03) and Windom junior Christianna Green (21:32) claimed the next four places.
C/M won the team title in dominant fashion with 34 points, followed by MCW (72), Worthington (85), JCC (90), T-M-B (99) and WA (129). PA, SWC/E and MCC/F were each incomplete.
Other area runners finishing among the top 20 included T-M-B’s Brooke Christian (eighth, 21:56) and Sarita Hook (12, 22:42), SWC/E’s Lydia Homandberg (13, 22:47), JCC’s Jayni Anderson (15, 22:51), Worthington’s Khot Juac (16, 22:55) and Jessica Darling (17, 23:34), MCC/F’s Emily Kathman (18, 23:35) and JCC’s Kia Holm (20, 23:38).
Nyiel Mayola (35th overall, 27 points, 24:48), Maria Contreras (38, 30, 25:10), Brianna Newman (43, 33, 26:16) and Rachel Koller (46, 36, 26:43) completed Worthington’s top seven.
The Trojans dominated the boys’ junior varsity competition, earning six of the top nine places and winning the team title with a mere 20 points (1-2-3-6-8).
Omot Toung (19:56), Blaine Doeden (20:12) and Dominic Burns (20:23) placed 1-2-3, while teammates Ben Penning (20:47), Tad Stewart (20:49) and Matt Desmith (21:10) finished 6-8-9.
