Viking cross country runners had mega-success at the Milaca MegaMeet in Hinckley on Saturday, September 25. In addition, two young racers Pete Summers and Matea Acero led their middle school teams. Left: Ninth grader Audrey Summers and senior Anna Schield ran together in the middle of the field for part of the race. Above Left: Pete Summers led the seventh grade boys, finishing with his best time of the season—13:15 in the 2-mile race. Above right: Seventh grader Matea Acero continued her winning streak, placing 15th in the 111-girl field with a time of 14:18 for the 2-mile race.
The Viking cross country caravan headed to Hinckley right after school on Friday, on the way down to the Milaca MegaMeet—the largest high school cross country meet in the United States, joining over 150 teams and 3,500 runners. For our varsity runners, the meet offered the opportunity to run against about half of the rated teams and individuals from throughout the state. For our new and young runners, a chance to run with kids their own age and experience level. For the coaches and fans, an opportunity to enjoy a three-ring running circus. Eighteen different races, one always starting before the prior one had ended. Fortunately, the recent heavy rains had left the area, and the 50 degree overcast day gradually cleared to a beautiful, sunny fall day, ideal for cross country.
First on the course was our seventh grade boys’ team. One hundred sixtythree boys represented 56 teams in the race. Pete Summers led the young Vikings down the steep little hill at the start. He ran one of his best races of the season, finishing the 2-mile race in 13:15, just missing the top 25 medal earning places by 2 spots. In the middle of the pack, Will Seaton and Roman Schnobrich ran 14:25 and 14:50 respectively, a major improvement for Roman. A little way back, Nate Carlson and Sean MacDonell completed the team scoring running 15:09 and 15:19. Overall, the boys finished 9th.
We have only a couple of young girls on this year’s team, seventh grader Matea Acero and eighth grader Ava McMillan. Matea continued her streak of medal winning placing in her 3rd straight meet, running 14:18 for 2 miles and placing 15th in the 111-girl field. Ava, a successful sprinter on our track team last spring, ran a solid 16:18 while making the difficult transition from sprinting to distance.
While our junior high girls group is small, our tenth grade girls group is large, although two were out sick and two were running the varsity race, the other five did a good job representing us in the 44 team, 172 runner field. All five set personal bests. Rose Ingebrigtsen caught Kara Ramey near the end of the race, running 20:03 for 2.5 miles, compared to Kara’s 20:17. Sarissa Falk continued improvement, running 20:52. Rachel Todd improved her best time by almost 2 minutes, running 21:30, as did Bailey Morrison who ran 22:37. The girls ended up in 15th place.
For Varsity races, Milaca divides the normal Minnesota A and AA classes into four classes. We raced in the larger half of the class A field. With the number 1, 3, 8 and 11th rated teams, and 1, 2, 4 and 6th rated individuals, our girls, led by senior Ailee Larson, had their hands full. Thepace was furious from the start. Ailee tucked in with the chase pack of 9, who were tracking the lead 4, staying with them for the first two 1K loops before heading out on the 2K loop that disappears out to the back of the course. Coming into the finish, Ailee had dropped back a few places, finishing 17th in 15:54, her first time under 16 minutes for 2.5 miles, the 4th girl to achieve that distinction in Viking cross country history. Back in the middle of the tough field, senior Anna Schield, who has a decent shot of qualifying for state, ran a solid 17:30. Shelby Ahrendt, a state meet competitor last year and the fastest of our tenth grade girls was next in 18:32. Ninth grader Audrey Summers had another huge improvement, dropping from the low 20-minute range to 18:58. Cheyenne Sorlie, who took another minute and a half off her best, running 19:04, paced her for most of the run. Meanwhile, Sara Schield rounded out the girls’ team, equaling her best of 20:13. The girls finished 15th in the 26 team field. A short time later, in the junior varsity race run on the same course, Katrina Axtell a fine 21:27 and Amber Todd 21:36, bests for both of them.
Coach Chris Hegg was challenged in the “old-timers” race, but managed to beat his Viking coach colleagues at the MegaMeet.
With seven of the top rated boys teams, and the number 4 individual runner, the boys’ race was equally loaded. Sophomore Kieran Scannell, who had won his first two races of the season after running at state in track and cross country last year, was looking forward to the challenge of facing a whole new group of 150 runners representing 25 teams.
Like the girls’ race, the pace was furious from the start. Kieran moved up quickly, leading a 6-man chase pack trailing the leader from St. Cloud Cathedral, the number 2 runner in the state, on the number 3 rated team. After completing the first 2 laps, he had dropped just off the back of that pack. We were confident of his ability to re-group, as we headed over to the finish area. Before too long, the leader came in, with the chase group splintered. Coming down the finish, Kieran closed on the number 6 runner, dipped into the line like a sprinter, just nipping him in 16:52, a PR and the third sub-17 race in Viking history. He had the fastest time of any Section 7 boy of any class at Milaca.
Meanwhile, Josh Ensign and David Bergstrom worked together in the top half of the pack, finishing in 18:25 and 18:54 respectively, Josh’s first sub-19 race. Ben Seaton broke 20 minutes for the first time, running 19:33, as did Darren Waha in 19:48. Freshmen Drew Christiansen and Joey Chmelik completed the Viking varsity, both breaking 21:00 for the first time, running 20:21 and 20:40. The boys finished 11th in the team scoring. Meanwhile in the JV race, Alex Ditmanson ran 22:05, Daniel Ditmanson 23:57, Sebastian Schnobrich 24:57 and Karl Ingebrigtsen 25:10, all at or near their personal bests.
The final race of the day at Milaca is the “old timers” race. Now most of these old timers are college age, although a fair number of older coaches do give it a go. We run the same 2-mile course as the junior high racers, much to the delight of the kids. I had a big target on my back this year, as our young assistant coach April Wahlstrom, a former top high school and collegiate runner at St Olaf, a rapidly improving Dave Seaton, and Two Harbors assistant Beth Schield were openly gunning for me. The team was betting on April. But I knew she was recovering from a series of injuries, and was a little rusty. I got away at the gun, but April tracked me down at about ¾ of a mile. When I heard her breathing as hard as me, I put a little burst in, moving my suffering up and opening a little gap that I held to the end, winning our “coach’s challenge” in 13:26. April was about 20 seconds back, Dave another 20 and Beth a couple minutes. Theyare already training for next year’s race!
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