PREVIEW
St. Francis Invitational
Location: Ponds Golf Course, Saint Francis
Weather: 80s and strong winds
BOYS
Virtual Meet Projection: Forest Lake (45), Cambridge-Isanti (80), Rogers (82)
Top Individuals: Charlie Babcock (Forest Lake, 15:47), Tyler Anderson (Blaine, 16:18), Nicholas Jacobson (Blaine, 16:36), Lucas Gustafson (Elk River, 16:36)
The Skinny: The team battle looks like it will come down to Forest Lake and Blaine. On paper, Forest Lake has the win with a group of five runners that look to be well ahead of the rest of the field. Forest Lake already beat Cambridge-Isanti earlier this season at the Cambridge-Isanti Invitational by 55 points. Blaine was actually the team that finished behind Forest Lake's win at that meet but still lost by 35 points. Charlie Babcock of Forest Lake seems to be well above this field of runners. He was the 24th place finisher at last year's state meet and has already beat the individuals from Blaine that are in this field. Babcock's teammate, Max Carlson, has already set a personal best of 16:38 this season and finished runner up to Babcock at the Cambridge-Isanti meet. Those two will be a great one-two punch to grab some low points for the team score today.
GIRLS
Virtual Meet Projection: Forest Lake (21), Elk River (78), Rogers (95)
Top Individuals: Regan Duffy (Forest Lake, 18:43), Ava Wilson (Forest Lake, 18:48), Amelea Hauer (Forest Lake, 18:58), Kelsey Huver (Blaine, 19:44)
The Skinny: It looks like it will be a Forest Lake sweep between the girl's and boy's races today. Forest Lake is projected to finish well ahead of their competitors from Elk River. Those two are Section 7AA rivals so a big win today will be a good boost of confidence for Forest Lake after falling to tenth from their fourth place position in the rankings. The individual race seems to be pretty wide open with many of the Forest Lake runners shaking up their positions on the team to start the season. It does still look like it will be one of the Forest Lake runners that will be taking the win, it is just a matter of which one.