Section 4A Recap

Gals Race Summary

The announcement at the awards ceremony was The Blake School first and Minnehaha Academy second.  However the coaches received a surprise email when they arrived  home indicating revised results.  The actual results were The Blake School first and Trinity second, with Trinity winning the tie-breaker for second.   The official scores, the Blake School  40 (1-3-9-12-15-21-23), Trinity (5-11-13-25-27-33-51) and Minnehaha Academy (6-7-10-14-44-55-58) tied with a score of 81.  If there ever was a reason for using replay at the finish or use of chip technology at a Section race, this is it as one of Minnehaha Academy's top runners bravely finished collapsing at or near the finish line as she gave everything she had at the race having to crawl across the finish line to score, making it difficult for placing without chip timing.  The results show how close the race was for the second place team finish, as the gals from Trinity and Minnehaha Academy were running near each other for the entire race.  Trinity missed its photo opportunity at the awards ceremony, however the Minnehaha Academy team again shows it class gracefully handing the trophies and medals to Trinity.  The coaches and team from Trinity handled the entire situation with grace and class as well, quietly handling the issue behind the scenes.  

Clare Flanagan (#1 ranked individual) from the Blake School is the individual Section 4A Champion running alone again with a very fast time of 14:17.    Janessa Meuleners (#10 ranked) from Belle Plaine ran alone as well finishing second with a time of of 14:51.  The battle for third was close the entire race, with Jordan Chancellor (#11th ranked) running a time of 15:05 edging unranked Tori Burr of Glencoe-Silver Lake.  Mary Ennis (#8th ranked) of Trinity finished fifth running a 15:12.

The remainder of the podium included Katherine Lubar (Minnehaha Academy), Casey Haffield (Minnehaha Academy), Mary Naas (SPA), Carolyn Nye (The Blake School), and Ellen Snow (Minnehaha Academy).   

Guys Race Summary

The Blake School (1-7-11-13-15-17-30) and Minnehaha Academy (4-6-9-12-16-18-38) showed why they are ranked high, as both teams tied with a score of 47.   In real time, this race came down to the wire between the fifth place runners from the Blake School and Minnehaha Academy, with Michael Mitchell (7th grader) from The Blake School edging the fifth place runner from Minnehaha Academy by less than three tenths of a second.   These two runners ran side by side in the last 100 meters, putting on a great show for the large crowd at the finish.  The tie breaker was also close, as the sixth place runner from The Blake School finished 17th and Minnehaha Academy's finished 18th.  The team race was close at virtually every position, and none of the athletes or coaches were aware of the team results until the Awards Ceremony, adding to the overall drama of the event.    

Brandon Clark (#1 ranked individual) from the Blake School is the individual Section 4A champion, running alone with a time of 15:48.   Jacob Siekmeier of the Math & Science Academy gamely tried to run with Clark but gave way at the 1000 meter mark, finishing 4th with a time of 16:20.   The race for second place was between four individuals all running side by side in the last 100 meters, with Mike Destache of SPA ultimately finishing second with a time of 16:19, followed closely by Jake Burr of Glencoe-Silver Lake, Siekmeier, and Luke Brown of Minnehaha Academy.  The remainder of the podium included Steven Zeller of Concordia, Jacob Eggers of Minnehaha Academy, Matt McFarland of the Blake School, Charlie Leighton of Trinity, and Ethan Wagner of Minnehaha Academy.

Unfortunately the gals Awards ceremony was not the only announcement issue, as the announcer inadvertently read the top 10 runners from the team results (SPA does not have a scoring team).   Therefore the freshman from MPA, Evan Ferlic was handed a medal for 10th place, although he was actually the 11th place runner (many in the crowd thought a DQ occurred).  Evan was on the podium until the announcer realized the issue (announcing the top two runners tied, which was not the case, so Destache and Clark were somewhat surprised and the crowd felt horrible for Ferlic).  Ferlic handled this issue with grace and class as all of the podium runners exchanged medals (although it didn’t really matter because the medals did not indicate place or the actual meet on the back).