PREVIEW
Stewartville Bill Glomski Invitational
Location: Bear Cave Park, Stewartville, MN
Weather: Low 70s, high humidity, sunny
BOYS
Virtual Meet Projection: La Crescent (49), Jordan (69)
Top Individuals: Symon Keiser (Jordan, 16:43), Axel Daood (Saint Charles, 17:07), Thomas Lechnir (La Crescent, 17:14), Tanner Horton (Pine Island, 17:22), Jacob Strack (Jordan, 17:32)
The Skinny: Based on personal bests and projections of placements, La Crescent (no longer with last year's Class A Distance Triple Crown winner Matt Steiger) looks like they have the team win by 20 points. That would be a reversal of the State Championships last season when La Crescent finished 9th while Jordan took 6th. Jordan comes in ranked tenth in Class A even with Owen Keiser graduating (seventh at State last year) who had a big impact on their success. Younger brother Symon Keiser is returning after his 23rd place finish at the 2017 State Championships where he finished in an All-State position. Throughout Keiser's three seasons of cross country he has showed considerable improvements and has landed in the top ten rankings to start this season. It will be interesting to see how the results for La Crescent and Jordan shake up because La Crescent could place themselves into the rankings if they successfully upset Jordan.
GIRLS
Virtual Meet Projections: Cotter (56), Stewartville (58), Jordan (79)
Top Individuals: Lauren Ping (Cotter, 17:07), Grace Ping (Cotter, 17:45), Kailee Malone (Stewartville, 18:58), Kayla Christopherson (Austin Pacelli, 19:07)
The Skinny: The dominating Ping sisters return to the cross country course. They have become widely known due to their numerous age group world records, dominating State titles, or Nike Cross Nationals All-American performances. Grace ended her season early last year when she scratched the Nike Cross Nationals Heartland Regional due to injury. She made a full comeback during track and finished third at state and ran within one second of her 3200m personal best (despite again battling a nagging injury). Grace also claimed her fourth State title by winning the 1600m. Lauren shares similar accomplishments with a 10:25 personal best and State title in the 3200m, an 11th place finish at the 2017 Nike Cross Nationals, and two runner-up finishes at the State level (cross country and 1600m). That was all accomplished in her first year competing in the MSHSL. They are ranked second (Lauren) and third (Grace) in Class A behind their other young rival, Tierney Wolfgram. The team race will be just as exciting as the individual race, with returnign state runner-up Cotter (ranked second) and Stewartville (ranked sixth). Cotter nearly had a remarkable upset at State against Perham, only losing by only one point. They graduated only two of those seven runners that ran at the championship meet, so they should be back for vengeance this year. Stewartville finished in fourth place at State last year with their top runner, Kailee Malone, finishing in 13th. Malone is ranked twelfth starting the season, which proves that she could close the gap between her and the Ping sisters which would make for an even close team finish between Cotter and Stewartville.