There's More Than Just St. Olaf Going On Today...

PREVIEW

Anoka ABC Early Bird

Location: Anoka High School, Anoka, MN

Weather: High 70s, sunny

BOYS

Virtual Meet Projections: Coon Rapids (54), Champlin Park (58), Blaine (64), Anoka (64)

Top Individuals: Tyler Anderson (Blaine, 16:18), Nicholas Jacobson (Blaine, 16:36), Danny Kloeppner (Champlin Park, 17:11), Nick Jorgenson (Coon Rapids, 17:12)

The Skinny: All of the teams that are competing today are from the Anoka School District. Coon Rapids, Champlin Park, Blaine, and Anoka are evenly matched and there is no clear top team competing today so the battle for the win will be interesting. If one of the teams put on a dominating performance, that could help them to climb the ranks at their conference meet. Coon Rapids has the advantage with their top three runners being projected to finish in the top ten. Blaine graduated their top runner, Ben Olson, but still have Tyler Anderson and Nicholas Jacobson who will be hard to beat for the top two spots.

GIRLS

Virtual Meet Projection: Andover (17), Coon Rapids (70)

Top Individuals: Alyssa Gerth (Andover, 19:03), Elizabeth Donner (Andover, 19:21), Alexa Havon (Andover, 19:35), Claire Beckman (Andover, 19:35), Alli Becker (Anoka, 19:42)

The Skinny: Alyssa Gerth is coming back after a successful 2017 season where she finished 32nd at the state meet improving upon her 123rd place finish in 2016.  An All-State performance (top 25) is on the horizons for her this season. Gerth will lead her team from Andover as they come in as the defending champions in both this meet and the Northwest Suburban Conference. Andover also finished eighth as a team at the state meet last year and will continue to be a top team this year because they are returning their entire varsity squad. Alli Becker from Anoka and Kelsey Huver from Blaine are the two individuals that can break up Anoka's top six runners at today's meet. It would not be surprising if Andover finished with a perfect score, grabbing the top five individual places.

(written by Emma Benner)

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