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

PREVIEW

Princeton Invitational

Location: Fairway Shores Executive Golf Course, Zimmerman

Weather: High 70s, sunny, 15 mph winds

BOYS

Virtual Meet Projections: Cambridge-Isanti (43), Heritage Christian Academy (50)

Top Individuals: Tommy Ryan (Pine City, 16:55), Travis Miller (Heritage Christian Academy, 17:05), Jared Nordstrom (Heritage Christian Academy, 17:05), Ryan Droubie (Cambridge-Isanti, 17:11)

The Skinny: Heritage Christian Academy, a Class A school coming off a surprise State qualification, could take down the Class AA school of Cambridge-Isanti. Cambridge-Isanti has the advantage on paper with their top five runnersy all grabbing top fifteen spots. Heritage Christian Academy, lead by Travis Miller, has more front runners but might be beat by a few points due to their fifth runner tending to finish a ways off of their top four.  Miller will face Tommy Ryan, a Section 5A rival, as well as his teammate Jared Nordstrom. The three of them come in with similar personal bests and none of them has shown consistent dominance over the others in previous matchups. Ryan had a strong showing at the 2017 state meet with a 34th place finish ahead of Miller's 55th place and Nordstrom's 67th place.

GIRLS

Virtual Meet Projection: United North Central (63), Zimmerman (73), Cambridge-Isanti (75)

Top Individuals: Cheresa Bouley (Zimmerman, 19:25), Lexi Duscher (Princeton, 19:45), Maria Laudenbach (Saint Francis, 19:46), Annika Aho (UNC, 19:51)

The Skinny: Section 7AA rivals, Cheresa Bouley and Lexi Duscher, will be in the race today. They were two athletes that qualified individually for the cross country state meet in 2017 and look to return this year.  The last time that they competed against each other, Duscher out leaned Bouley by 0.6 seconds to grab the second, and final, state qualifying position in the 1600m. Annika Aho has already won a race this year with a 20:43 effort at her home meet on Monday. She'll also be leading the team favorites from UNC. She'll also be looking to get back into her All-State form after falling to a 61st-place finish last year, and if her opening race is any indication, she's on the right track.

(written by Emma Benner)