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

Location: St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park, Hastings, MN

Weather: Sunny and mid-70's

BOYS

Virtual Meet Projection: Red Wing (26), Saint Paul Central (49)

Top Individuals: Tom Nemanich (Red Wing, 15:38), Tucker Wallin (Red Wing, 16:00), Joseph Reimann (East Ridge, 16:09), Mickies Kiros (Saint Paul Central, 16:13), Weston Wyatt (Red Wing, 16:13), Bryan Zucker (Red Wing, 16:15)

The Skinny: Red Wing is proving their dominance this season with two wins, one being completed with a perfect score (15 points at the Wabasha-Kellogg Gallop Meet). This is unsurprising as they are currently ranked fourth in the state and have a solid top five runners that were only separated by 18 seconds at the Wabasha-Kellogg Gallop 2-mile race and 40 second at the St. Olaf Showcase 5000m race. Weston Wyatt has the third fastest personal best on their team but has been running as the team's first runner this season and came away with a 5000m personal best at the St. Olaf Showcase which was over a minute faster than the time that he ran at that meet a year ago. Being that he placed 90th at last year's state meet as Red Wing's fourth runner they should see large improvements to their seventh place finish at the state meet. Joseph Reimann of East Ridge ran to personal bests in the 1600m and 3200m during the track season this year and is a really consistent runner, typically finishing near the Red Wing runners, so he should be right on the heels of Tom Nemanich, Tucker Wallin, and Wyatt of Red Wing.  

GIRLS

Virtual Meet Projections: Red Wing (30), East Ridge (75), Saint Paul Central (80)

Top Individuals: Grace Johnson (Red Wing, 18:52), Sophia Rabins (Saint Paul Central, 18:53), Lex Davis (Osseo, 19:02), Ariana Mollgaard (Red Wing, 19:18), Grace Dube (Red Wing, 19:18)

The Skinny: It looks like there will be a Red Wing sweep with the girl's team following their male counterparts and coming in with a strong group of runners that will be hard to beat. If Red Wing does successfully complete this win, they will probably see themselves near the top ten rankings because East Ridge came into the season receiving an honorable mention for teams to watch in Class AA. This is surprising because Red Wing only had Ariana Mollgaard representing them at the 2017 State Championships. Grace Johnson of Red Wing should be a main factor for that improvement due to her impressive eighth place finish at the St. Olaf Showcase this year. Johnson is not new to success as she finished 25th at the 2015 State Cross Country Championships and 31st in 2016 but fell to a 75th place finish last year in her section, not advancing to the state meet. Mollgaard will need to improve upon her 66th place performance at the St. Olaf Showcase to help her team clinch this win.  Where the Red Wing runners place today compared to the field will be telling of the success and improvements that could be coming for this group of girls.