PREVIEW
Monticello Invitational
Location: Bertram Regional Park, Monticello
Weather: Mid 70s and sunny
BOYS
Virtual Meet Projection: Sartell-Saint Stephen (43), Hutchinson (49), Saint Michael-Albertville (50)
Top Individuals: Alex Nemeth (Sartell-Saint Stephen, 15:51), Carter Knaus (Saint Michael-Albertville, 15:57), Jonah Breuer (Saint Michael-Albertville, 16:08), Zach Nemeth (Sartell-Saint Stephen, 16:45), Mitchell Grand (Hutchinson, 16:45)
The Skinny: Alex Nemeth of Sartell-Saint Stephen and Carter Knaus of Saint Michael-Albertville are very evenly matched runners. They finished within half a second of each other at the 2017 State Meet where Knaus finished 27th and Nemeth finished 29th. Both of their personal bests come from the following weekend at the Nike Cross Heartland Regional. Nemeth defeated Knaus at this meet last year but only narrowly beat out Jonah Breuer (The video of that race was named the Kick Of The Week). Those three will make it a very close race as their teams also compete in a tight scoring race. Right now, Sartell-Saint Stephen has the advantage due to being projected to have all of their scoring runners finish in the top ten even though STMA has the two runners that are gunning for the win. But the most interesting team to watch will be Hutchinson, who are fresh off a season opening meet that saw their whole varsity team drop massive time from the same meet last year. If they can put up a similar performance this week, they might start gaining some momentum in the polls.
GIRLS
Virtual Meet Projections: Saint Michael-Albertville (18), Sartell-Saint Stephen (78), Monticello (90)
Top Individuals: Ali Weimer (Saint Michael-Albertville, 17:49), Annalise Davis (Saint Michael-Albertville, 18:37), Katie Sigerud (Saint Michael-Albertville, 18:53), Ingrid Buiceag-arama (Sartell-Saint Stephen, 18:54), Jessica Immer (Saint Michael-Albertville, 19:01)
The Skinny: The girls from STMA have their sights set on a top three finish at the State meet this year, if not more. They have the team to do it because they finished third a year ago and return all of those runners. Ali Weimer, the freshman from STMA, also has her sights set on that top three spot and is currently ranked fourth. Last year, in her first season running cross country and track she finished eighth in cross country and seventh in the 3200m in track at the respective state meets. Her teammate, Annalise Davis, finished eleventh at the state cross country meet in 2016 but fell to a 22nd place finish in 2017. After a track season where she placed fifth in the 3200 and seventh in the 1600m she looks to be back where she left off. Davis was far behind Weimer at her season opener, the St. Olaf Showcase, but still has the potential to be right up there with her.
(written by Emma Benner)
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