PREVIEW
St. Cloud Apollo Early Bird Invitational
Location: Veteran's Administration CC, St. Cloud
Weather: Partly cloudy, mid 60s and very high humidity
BOYS
Virtual Meet Projection: Wayzata (17 points), Saint Cloud Apollo (97 points), Sartell-Saint Stephen (99 points)
Top Individuals: Grant Price (Wayzata, 15:45), Andrew Brandt (Wayzata, 15:46), Zachary Miller (Wayzata, 15:58), Samuel Ringger (Sauk Rapids-Rice, 16:09), Patrick Leonard (Wayzata, 16:11)
The Skinny: Wayzata will be expected to absolutely dominate this meet. The only question is by how much, as they don't always race all of their varsity here. In 2017, Grant Price, Andrew Brandt, Mitchell Tolander, and Blake Buysse used this race as a warmup for the season, so expect at least some of the Trojans' top talent to compete. With Sartell-St. Stephen electing to only race their JV squad this year, Sauk Rapids-Rice's Samuel Ringger will likely be the only person standing in the way of a clean sweep for Wayzata, as they own eight of the top nine PRs from last season.
GIRLS
Virtual Meet Projection: Sartell-Saint Stephen (19 points), Elk River (46 points)
Top Individuals: Ingrid Buiceag-Arama (Sartell-St. Stephen, 18:54), Colette Jemming (Sartell-St. Stephen, 19:43), Hannah Spoden (Sartell-St. Stephen, 19:49), Emily Driste (Sartell-St. Stephen, 19:56)
The Skinny: Assuming that the Sartell-St. Stephen runs their full varsity squad, they should ease their way to the team victory. Led by Ingrid Buiceag-Arama, who made it onto the Class AA rankings last season, the Sabres hold the four fastest PRs in the field. However, other than Buiceag-Arama, these times were run at the notoriously fast St. Cloud Tech Invite, meaning this matchup will be much closer than it was on paper. Last year, Elk River was just 12 points off of the win. And their formidable (and youthful) duo of Elaina Kuhnau and Audrey Neuerberg-Chapman should keep them in contention once again.