Cross-Country: This Morris/CA Tiger gets to work

Sep. 16—SPICER — Going into the second lap of the Little Crow Invitational, Hailey Werk knew it was time to turn on the jets.

Getting into the final leg of Thursday's 5-kilometer cross-country race at Little Crow Country Club, the Morris/Chokio-Alberta junior was bunched up with Minnewaska's Lauryn Ankeny and Paynesville/Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa's Madison Wendlandt.

"I saw my coach and a few of my teammates cheering me on," Werk said. "I was just thinking I want my team to do well in this race, so I got to push it in the last half-mile."

So, Werk put in the work. And, she was able to pull away to win the girls' race in 20 minutes, 26.3 seconds.

"It feels so great," Werk said about getting the win. "The last 100 meters, I'm always so worried that someone is right behind me to get ahead of me at the end."

Werk didn't have to worry on Thursday. She beat the runner-up — Redwood Valley's Addie Thomes — by 13 seconds. Wendlandt placed third at 20:53.8.

"There are so many hills here," Werk said of the Little Crow course. "This has to be one of the hardest courses I run this year."

There were 91 runners in the girls varsity race. Ankeny (sixth, 21:26.8), New London-Spicer's Peyton Dahl (seventh, 21:36.5), Minnewaska's Kiearra Wilmes (eighth, 21:58.0) and Central Minnesota Christian's Sidney Duininck (ninth, 22:00.4) all placed top 10 among area runners.

With 74 points, Redwood Valley won the girls team championship over Minnewaska's 89 and Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd's 92. Melrose (139) and West Central Area (153) rounded out the top five.

In the boys' race Sauk Centre's Brandon Kampsen dominated all 5 kilometers.

Placing third in last season's Class A state cross-country meet, Kampsen finished first in 16:06.2. His time was 42.6 seconds better than second-place Will Ahrens of Redwood Valley.

In the field of 115, the top local runner was Minnewaska's Maeson Tank. He placed sixth at 17:41.1.

"It felt good, but I felt like I could have had a little more," Tank said of his race. "I just got to do better in the end."

With seven West Central Conference teams and six Section 6A teams in the field, Tank hopes that Thursday's race will serve him and the Lakers well in late October.

"It's good seeing all the good runners and it's good competition," Tank said. "It's someone to push you and I always run better when there's somebody in front of me."

NLS's Jack Barney (seventh, 17:43.7) and LQPV/D-B's Gavin Carl (ninth, 17:49.3) finished in the top 10.

Redwood Valley completed the team sweep, winning the boys team title with 72 points. Sauk Centre (84), NLS (124), LQPV/D-B (153) and West Central Area (158) made up the rest of the top five.

Boys

Team scoring

(1) Redwood Valley 72 (2) Sauk Centre 84 (3) New London-Spicer 124 (4) Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd 153 (5) West Central Area 158 (6) Litchfield 165 (7) St. John's Prep 175 (8) Minnewaska 210 (9) Melrose 244 (10) Benson/Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 283 (11) Morris/Chokio-Alberta 300 (12) BOLD/Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 317 (13) Ortonville 323 (14) Eden Valley-Watkins/Kimball 333 (15) Paynesville/Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa 363 (16) Central Minnesota Christian 364 (17) MACCRAY/Renville County West 422

Individual

TOP FIVE — (1) Brandon Kampsen, SC, 16:06.2 (2) Will Ahrens, RV, 16:48.8 (3) Henry Lemke, EVW/K, 17:19.6 (4) Zach Meyer, SJP, 17:26.0 (5) Kilen Cilek, RV, 17:26.6

NLS — (7) Jack Barney 17:43.7 (16) Isaiah Nelson 18:39.2 (22) Jett Kubesh 18:53.4 (34) Carson Sampson 19:30.9 (45) Paul Skretvedt 19:49.8

LQPV/D-B — (9) Gavin Carl 17:49.3 (12) Eli Hegland 18:20.4 (31) Tygan Allpress 19:23.7 (50) Justin Perkins 19:57.0 (51) James Weber 20:00.2

LITCHFIELD — (11) Ole Rogness 18:06.1 (18) August Swenson 18:46.0 (19) Owen Carlson 18:46.2 (57) Ethan Knudsen 20:29.1 (62) Josh Blomberg 20:39.0

MINNEWASKA — (6) Maeson Tank 17:41.1 (40) Jayce Kovarik 19:43.4 (41) Zach Palmer 19:43.4 (59) Ian Mills 20:32.6 (66) James Ward 20:41.9

BENSON/KMS — (36) Isaac Wirth 19:35.0 (48) Noah Johnson 19:52.4 (49) Luke Froelich 19:52.6 (61) Logan Hadfield 20:37.2 (91) Quin Peterson 21:45.3

MORRIS/CA — (17) Gavin Stallman 18:40.4 (38) Matthew Giese 19:38.3 (73) Grady Stallman 20:49.8 (86) Jacob Buhl 21:16.3 (89) Pierce Richards 21:40.1

BOLD/BLHS — (24) Niko Garcia 18:57.2 (33) Daniel Frank 19:29.7 (56) Carter Macik 20:25.8 (106) Tegan Jansen 22:38.9 (107) Alec Oldre 22:53.6

PAYNESVILLE/BBE — (42) Brady Schwinghammer 19:44.8 (58) Brandon Hess 20:32.0 (71) Alex Blonigan 20:48.5 (100) 22:09.7 (102) Matt Walz 22:19.3

CMCS — (26) Timothy Brouwer 19:07.0 (69) Jackson Marcus 20:48.0 (80) Kaiden Ruis 21:02.5 (83) Sam Mulder 21:09.1 (113) Caleb Greydanus 23:40.5

MACCRAY/RCW — (21) Ivan Berrera 18:52.6 (90) Isaiah Schroeder 21:43.6 (101) Ryan Schrupp 22:11.6 (109) Daniel Seehusen 23:10.1 (114) Josiah Seehusen 24:07.2

COMMUNITY CHRISTIAN — (54) David Mulder 20:23.2 (98) Micah Lindgren 22:04.8 (99) Jack Velyan 22:08.0 (115) Ethan Livingood 24:17.2

Girls

Team scoring

(1) Redwood Valley 74 (2) Minnewaska 89 (3) Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd 92 (4) Melrose 139 (5) West Central Area 153 (6) Eden Valley-Watkins/Kimball 155 (7) Litchfield 163 (8) New London-Spicer 172 (9) Central Minnesota Christian 180 (10) Morris/Chokio-Alberta 198 (11) St. John's Prep 267 (12) Sauk Centre 281

Individual

TOP FIVE — (1) Hailey Werk, MCA, 20:26.3 (2) Addie Thomes, RV, 20:39.1 (3) Madison Wendlandt, P/BBE, 20:53.8 (4) Lola Luze, RV, 21:10.8 (5) Madalyn Munsell, RV, 21:17.1

MINNEWASKA — (6) Lauryn Ankeny 21:26.8 (8) Kiearra Wilmes 21:58.0 (19) Elsey Hagen 22:40.2 (21) Piper Citrowske 22:46.0 (42) Aubrey Stark 23:59.5

LQPV/D-B — (14) Taylor Shelstad 22:24.9 (15) Chloe Gloege 22:30.0 (20) Anika Fernholz 22:44.6 (22) Shay Bothun 22:52.8 (27) Taylor Wood 23:04.7

LITCHFIELD — (33) Kimberlyn Case 23:15.4 (34) Abby Thoma 23:25.4 (35) Kala Ziegler 23:26.8 (37) Shelby Dengerud 23:37.8 (39) Tynisa Lara 23:38.6

NLS — (7) Peyton Dahl 21:36.5 (17) Emersyn Hagen 22:37.4 (25) Emily Gratton 22:59.0 (66) Raeann Holmquist 25:44.8 (69) Mady Woelfel 26:00.7

CMCS — (9) Sidney Duininck 22:00.4 (16) Annaliese Wood 22:36.5 (36) Maggie Setrum 23:37.6 (56) Abby Timmer 24:42.9 (79) Ashlyn Brouwer 27:37.5

MORRIS/CA — (1) Werk 20:26.3 (31) Kendal Fischer 23:13.0 (53) Hana Schutz 24;32.5 (54) Alayna Perkins 24:40.1 (73) Johanna Baez Sanchez 26:21.9

PAYNESVILLE/BBE — (3) Madison Wendlandt 20;53.8 (30) Paige Frenchick 23:12.4 (81) Tressa Lieser 27:41.2

BENSON/KMS — (24) Amber Rosemeier 22:58.4 (78) Katlyn Peters 27:33.0 (87) Valerie Hienkens 29:35.9 (90) Lexie Thompson 31:46.6

BOLD/BLHS — (58) Kenna Henriksen 24:58.7