The Raiders Cross Country team competed at the Dewey Minnaert Invitational at St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park on Sept. 5. The boys placed sixth overall and the girls placed second. Leading the way for both teams was Linnea Ronning who placed second and Parker Stoltz who placed 14th.
On the boy’s side of things. Osseo took first as a team with a score of 63 and Hastings scored 126 in their sixth-place finish. Osseo had the fastest individual with a time of 16:16.7. Here are the Hastings boys results in order of finishing.
14 Parker Stoltz 17:18.7
24 David Tireman 17:52.1
27 Tristan Herbst 18:01.2
29 Aiden Reuter 18:02.9
32 William Carry 18:21.5
64 Finn Cullen 20:23.4
65 James Jensen 20:24.1
73 Benjamin Schwanke 21:33.5
75 Micah Trost 21:59.6
81 Maxwell Burmeister 24:01.7
On the girl’s side, Osseo also took first with a team score of 53, Hastings was just 12 points behind with a 65 and they edged out East Ridge who had a 75. East Ridge had the fastest female runner, Lydia Franson, with a time of 19:45.7 who Ronning defeated at the previous week’s meet. Here are the girls results in order of finishing.
2 Linnea Ronning 20:32.2
10 Sara Siebenaler 22:03.5
14 Lucy Burmeister 22:29.6
17 Sienna McCoy 22:53.3
28 Clara Hochmuth 24:07.8
37 Emily Beaudet 24:47.9
41 Olivia Schuster 25:17.2
42 Mattea Quigley 25:18.8
Head Coach Joe Rabaey quickly returned to the team after he and his wife had their first child. It would be unfair to not explain that Rabaey was all smiles talking about his new little one and that excitement carried over to the team.
The first meet of the season was during the stretch of weather that was horribly hot unless you are a reptile living in the desert, then it was nice out. This week was a bit different.
“Well, it's a lot better weather,” laughed Rabaey. “The first couple races of season, you're always getting back into shape, and you tend to see improvements really quick. Even though this week had back to school happening we had a really tough workout on Tuesday, which we had to kind of push to Tuesday, because Monday, a lot of people were still gone for Labor Day. So, they come into this a little bit with heavy legs, and yet, we still have seen people drop a ton of time. I know a few runners have dropped like, four minutes from where we were last week, which, as you know, was hot last week. But also, part of it's just building confidence, getting the legs under them, and getting more in shape. So, it's exactly what we want.”
Cross Country running is not only a difficult thing to do physically, but it also really tests your mental strength too, having your mind know to trust the body when the boys initially says ‘hey now, this is not fun, I’m tired, we should quit.’ Having the right support system around the runners is extremely important and the support the group gives each other at practices really stands out to Coach Rabaey.
“Yeah, it's just an awesome team. We have only one senior, Sienna McCoy, who's just amazing for us, but we have a huge group of juniors that have kind of been coming up since they were freshmen. They've really taken over the team and set the culture. We had a huge summer of running from all of them that was really set by the team, you know, their standard. And we've come in in better shape than I think we have in any of my seasons here. The workouts have gone good, the races have gone good so far. So, we're just building off it. I said it at the beginning of this season, I want this team to be a family, and they totally are. I love all of them, and we've had a lot of fun already this season, and they're just a great group, and we're going to have a lot more fun before it is done,” he said.
The team is filled with amazing young adults who clearly have a good time with this sport. They are fun to cheer for and inspiring to watch. Make sure you get out and see at least one race this season, you will be impressed. The next chance to catch the runners is at the rare nighttime race at Flying Cloud Fields on Sept. 14. Girls Varsity is set to run at 9:00 p.m. and the boys at 9:30 p.m.