Over A Dozen Meets Make Up Massive Day Of Racing

St. Charles Invitational

Location: St. Charles Golf Course, St. Charles, MN

Weather: Low 60s, cloudy, 15mph wind

BOYS

Virtual Meet Projections: Plainview-Elgin-Millville (52), La Crescent-Hokah (72), Lake City (85)

Top Individuals: Austin Dawley (Plainview-Elgin-Millville, 16:34), Axel Daood (Saint Charles, 16:36), Samson Hagen (Plainview-Elgin-Millville, 16:47), Hunter Grimm (Lake City, 16:53), Luke O'hare (Lewiston-Altura, 17:08)

The Skinny: The team winner should come from the twelfth ranked team of Plainview-Elgin-Millville. In their most recent race, they defeated both La Crescent-Hokah and Lake City by a large amount. At that meet, their top four runners were ahead of both Lake City and La Crescent-Hokah's first runner. PEM's first two runners of Austin Dawley and Samson Hagen have been finishing close together at each of their meets. Hagen is having a great year and even defeated Dawley at the Dover-Eyota Invite. Up there with them should be Axel Daood who was in the mix with those two at the Lake City Invite and Dover-Eyota Invite. He has yet to beat Dawley this season so it will be an interesting matchup to watch.

GIRLS

Virtual Meet Projections: Lake City (38), Stewartville (39), Dover-Eyota (71)

Top Individuals: Kailee Malone (Stewartville, 18:58), Jacey Majerus (Lake City, 19:21), Madilyn Simon (Plainview-Elgin-Millville, 19:50), Laura Pedelty (Stewartville, 20:01), Kaylee Arndt (Lanesboro/Fillmore Central, 20:03)

The Skinny: Stewartville and Lake City will go head to head today, being separated by only one point in the projections. Stewartville is ranked fourth and Lake City is ranked seventh in Class A. They have raced each other once this year, at the Lake City Invitational, where Stewartville won with 46 points and Lake City fell to third with 59 points. Stewartville needs their fifth runner to close the gap in order to be a secured win but their top three are very dominant which will help them get the win either way. Kailee Malone is currently ranked eleventh in Class A which is consistent with her thirteenth place last year at state. She has not won an individual title yet this year and this looks like the race to do it. Her biggest competition will come from Jacey Majerus who has had great improvements this year and finished behind Malone at the Lake City Invite. It will be interesting to see how close Majerus can finish to Malone and to continue to watch her improve upon her 31st place finish at the state meet last year.