Stars Out To Shine On Today's Big Day Of Racing

PREVIEW

Roseau XC Meet

Location: Oak Crest Golf Course, Roseau

Weather: Low 70s, low humidity, partly cloudy, very little wind- great conditions!

BOYS

Virtual Meet Projection: East GrandEast Grand Forks Forks (25), InternaInternational Fallstional Falls (38), RoRoseauseau (62)

Top Individuals: Cole Nowacki (East Grand Forks, 16:56), Tyson Mahar (East Grand Forks, 16:57), SakSakariye Ismailariye Ismail (East Grand Forks, 17:19), JonatJonathan Kruegerhan Krueger (East Grand Forks, 17:42)

The Skinny: Ben Andringa of Crookston has elected to compete in soccer this fall, which means that only two of the three top finishers from last year will be returning, both Cole Nowacki and Tyson Mahar of East Grand Forks. After Andringa was the champion at this meet in a strong win last year, Nowacki and Mahar went on to have great improvements in their seasons where they finished in the second (Nowacki) and third (Mahar) place spots at their conference championships and advanced to the State Meet. Then last week, they both opened the season string with times of 16:57 and 17:21. Lead by those two, East Grand Forks will be a tough team to beat, even with International Falls claiming spots four though seven in he virtual meet. Right now, EGF still has a rather large gap between their fourth and 5th runners, which could open the door for International Falls if they run well, but if EGF can close that gap, they are going to be difficult to beat out for a spot at State.

GIRLS

Virtual Meet Projections: East Grand Forks (25), Warroad (41)

Top Individuals: Katherine Geist (Crookston, 19:24), Marin Garrett (East Grand Forks, 20:29), McKenna Langerud (East Grand Forks, 20:44), Lydia Floden (East Grand Forks, 20:47)

The Skinny: The top three girls from last year's race will be in the field today. Last year, Katherine Geist won this race by one minute and twelve seconds ahead of Marin Garrett. Geist ran personal bests in the 1600m (5:06) and 3200m (11:13) this outdoor track season after a disappointing finish to her 2017 cross country season. In 2016, she finished 17th at the state meet for Class A but finished in 56th last year. She opened up her season in a time of 19:24 and after a successful track season it looks like she will be able to dominate this field again. With many teams not having a full five scorers (due to not having enough runners on their teams), the team scores change up a bit. This leaves East Grand Forks being projected to win ahead of Warroad.

(written by Emma Benner)