It's Championships Galore On Conference Tuesday!

Weather: Low 70's, sunny

BOYS

Top Teams: Mankato Loyola (28 points), Martin County West (57)

Top Individuals: Alec Ille (Blooming Prairie, 16:44), Mitch Johnstone (Mankato Loyola, 16:46), Carson Kahler (Martin County West, 17:10), Kaden Cameron (WEM/JWP, 17:20), Landon Javens (Mankato Loyola, 17:23)

The Skinny: It has been a dream season for Mankato Loyola. After returning their whole team from a 12th-place finish at state last year, they have yet to lose a meet this year, and there is no reason to suspect they will lose their conference meet. With one lowstick runner in Johnstone and four tightly-packed athletes after that, they are a perfectly-constructed team to do well at State. But the indovidual battle will be a tight one for Johnstone as he battles Blooming Prairie's Alec Ille, who is wrapping up a very long and successful high school career, having finished in the top three for six of his eight races in 2017.

Top Individuals: Marissa Whitehead (Martin County West, 19:00), Makenna Thurston (LCWM, 19:30), Beth Stevermer (United South Central, 20:14)

The Skinny: Like their boys, Martin County West again projects to be the runner-up their conference championships, this time to Lake Crystal-WM, but the same should not be expected for their top runner Marissa Whitehead. While Lake Crystal's Makenna Thurston has been having an amazingly consistent year, she has lost both her head-to-head matchups to the 2016 State runner-up by decent margins and has yet to run faster than 19:30 (which Whitehead has done four times). Still, expect it to be an exciting battle to the finish between the two All-State runners.