Class A Girls
Last year the Perham girls team finally won their first team title in Cross Country after having qualified for State every year since 2003. This year they return five of their top seven, and are the favorite to defend their title. Led by Class A's second-ranked individual Brynnan Covington and tenth-ranked Caitlyn Covington, Perham has been the top ranked team in the state for most of the season, and have gotten better as the season has gone on, scoring 43 points with an average of 20:00 for their top five runners in their section meet. However, they are not undefeated against Class A competition. At the Milaca Mega Meet, second-ranked Fairmont scored seven fewer points and unseated a shorthanded Perham team from the State's top spot for two weeks. Led by senior Jenna Pavich, the team that was last year's fifth-place finisher was equally as dominant in their section meet, scoring 45 points while averaging 19:54 with a spread of 43 seconds.
Twitter: @SaraGudahl
Third-ranked Luverne high school could very well play spoiler on Saturday. While they started the season out slowly, they have picked up a lot of steam in recent meets, averaging 20:06 in the Adrian Invitational, then 20:29 in winning their conference race, and finally 20:00 while scoring 42 points in their section meet. Senior Madi Schandelmeier leads the squad while eighth grader Regan Feit has been hot on her heels. Lanesboro and Annandale have both also had excellent seasons and are well-poised for a podium finish. But one team that cannot be discounted is Lake City, who stunned fourth-ranked Stewartville and fifth-ranked Lanesboro by beating them both in the Section 1A meet after having lost to both teams earlier in the year.
In the individual competition, we will have an unexpected changing of the guard after the two top finishers from last year (Winona Cotter's Grace Ping and Breck's Morgan Richter) both moved to different schools (and in Ping's case, to a different state). But eighth grader Tierney Wolfgram of Math & Science Academy has proven herself to be more than capable of filling their shoes. Probably no runner is as big a favorite on Saturday as last years' tenth-place finisher, who made a huge statement back in September at the Roy Griak Invitational by finishing fourth and being the first Minnesota athlete to cross the line. Wolfgram is undefeated in 2016 against Minnesota competition, and her margins of victory have typically been measured in minutes. But Perham's Brynnan Covington and Eden-Valley Watkin's Anna Donnay will aim to make it a race, as last years' respective thirteenth- and seventh-place finishers have had fine seasons of their own. Covington has not lost to any Class A runner save Wolfgram, and Donnay has not lost to anyone save Covington. Lydia Kantonen of Park Rapids and Kira Sweeney of Staples-Motley both will give a good challenge as well, while Carlton's Erica Fox, Trinity's Grace Ennis, and Kayla Christopherson from Austin Pacelli's team return from last year's top-ten finishes.