Location: Blueberry Hills Golf Course, Deer River
Weather: 49 and cloudy
BOYS
Virtual Meet Projections: Deer River/Northland (70), Pequot Lakes (71), International Falls (75), Wadena-Deer Creek (83), Cromwell/Floodwood (86)
Top Individuals: Wyatt Rauvola (Cromwell/Floodwood, 16:27), Taran Howard (DRN, 16:50), Cameron Dickey (Cromwell/Floodwood, 17:16), Bereket Loer (WDC, 17:23), Gii Wadon (DRN, 17:28)
The Skinny: On the team side, with five team projected 16 points apart, this race could hardly get any closer. Looking at each school's season bests with the naked eye hardly clears up anything, as each school is structured similarly with a low stick or two running in the low 17's and about a two-minute spread. As for past race results, the balance might shift slightly into favor of Wadena-Deer Creek, as they beat Deer river/Northland in Milaca (where Cormwell did not field a full team) and edged out both Pequot lakes and International Falls in Bagley, thus having at least one head-to-head win over each other competitor. On the individual side, Cromwell's Wyatt Rauvola comes in with both the fastest career-best and season-best times, and he will be returning to the course where he ran his PR in the first place, giving him an excellent chance to break the 17 minute barrier for the season. Taran Howard sat out at Milaca, but is also a threat to challenge for the win, while Bereket Loer (a member of Wadena's champion sprint relays last track season) has been having a very strong season and can compete for a win as well. The dark horse here is Gii Wadon of Deer River, who is only in his first year of cross country, and only just ran his second race in Milaca, but still achieved a time of 17:28.
GIRLS
Virtual Meet Projections: Pequot Lakes (37), Wadena-Deer Creek (59), Crosby-Ironton (81), International Falls (88)
Top Individuals: Abby Motschenbacher (WDC, 20:22), Ryan Ford (International Falls, 20:36), Avery Sivonen (International Falls, 20:55), Rian Zutter (Pequot Lakes, 21:09)
The Skinny: The girls race has a more clear favorite in Pequot Lakes with five runners in the top 14, however they have a significant drop off to their sixth runner, so they can't afford one of their top runners having a misstep or the more deep squad from Wadena could pull off the upset. Interestingly, however, it was neither of those two teams, but rather International Falls who won the head-to-head matchup at Bagley last week despite their fourth-place projected finish here, so International falls could be a little underrated. The individual battle could be a close one too, as both Abby Motschenbacker and Ryan Ford have been running very well this year, are fresh off of PRs in Bagley, and possibly on the cusp of breaking 20 minutes.
(written by Mark Rice)