There's More Than Just St. Olaf Going On Today...

PREVIEW

Location: Appleton Golf Course, Appleton

Weather: 70's, humid, cloudy, chance of thunderstorms late

BOYS

Virtual Meet Projections: Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd (24), Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta (80), Benson/KMS (88), BOLD (96)

Top Individuals: Mikey Kvaal (LQPVDB, 16:29), Noah Stewart (MACA, 16:57), Ezekiel Sather (LQPVDB, 17:16), Rory Schackelford (YME, 17:29), Nathan Frank (BOLD, 17:41)

The Skinny: With many of these teams going on just one day of rest after running at Morris, it will be interesting to see how everything plays out. Class A #6 LQPVDB is the very strong favorite and have a lot of momentum after taking down West Central Area, and they even have some room to improve too (I'm sure Mikey Kvaal would have liked to be a little bit quicker than 17:23). But one runner that we really need to watch, and who may find himself ranked very soon, is MACA's Noah Stewart, who shattered his PR by 34 seconds in his first race of the season. Stewart is coming off an excellent track season that saw him run 10:16 in the 3200m, so it may not be all that surprising to see improvement, but this much so soon has got to have both him and racing fans excited. 

GIRLS

Virtual Meet Projection: Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd (29), Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta (55), Ortonville (86)

Top Individuals: Isabel Schirm (LQPVDB, 20:11), Meredith Carrington (MACA, 20:30), Clarissa Vanderwal (Ortonville, 20:48)

The Skinny: In a mirror image of the boys race, LQPVDB is the strong favorite on the girls side. And also just like the boys, their girls squad is running on one day of rest after upsetting West Central Area at Morris, putting them at least in the conversation for a ranking next week depending on how they look today. The individual field isn't nearly as strong here as with the boys, but Isabel Schirm will be looking for her second win in two tries, and has a good chance of achieving it too. She had a strong track season and is picking up right where she left off from last XC season.
(written by Mark Rice)