PREVIEW
Ada-Borup Booster Invitational
Location: Heart of the Valley Golf Club, Ada
Weather: High 75 and low of 58 and fairly windy
BOYS
Virtual Meet Projection: East Grand Forks (30), Wadena-Deer Creek (56), Ada-Borup/Norman County West (63)
Top Individuals: Cole Nowacki (East Grand Forks, 16:13), Tyson Mahar (East Grand Forks, 16:20), Christian Sterton (Ada-Borup/NCW, 16:31), David Johnston (Pelican Rapids, 17:13), Sakariye Ismail (East Grand Forks, 17:14)
The Skinny: A smaller race that predominantly represents the northwest region of Minnesota will be fairly top heavy as far as individuals go with Cole Nowacki, Tyson Mahar, and Christian Sterton leading the charge with sub 17 PR's entering this race. The 2-headed monster for East Grand Forks that is Nowacki, and Mahar will try their best to work together and hold off Sterton, an All-State senior coming off a stress fracture who will be opening his season on his home course for the last time in his career trying to bring one home. As far as team scoring goes, the projections seem to suggest that a duke out for first between East Grand Forks and Wadena-Deer Creek may be in store with the host of the meet Ada-Borup not too far behind. It's still early in the season, but with a bit cooler weather on the forecast, and possibly some wind this meet may contain some surprises as the weather may play a significant factor.
GIRLS
Virtual Meet Projection: East Grand Forks (28), Pelican Rapids (48), Wadena-Deer Creek (82)
Top individuals: Abby Syverson (Pelican Rapids, 20:08), Lydia Floden (East Grand Forks, 20:14), McKenna Langerud (East Grand Forks, 20:23), Marin Garrett (East Grand Forks, 20:29), Abby Motschenbacher (Wadena-Deer Creek, 20:49)
The Skinny: Another smaller field in this race, with a bit fewer athletes than the boys race, but nevertheless we are bound to see some excitement as 4 athletes at the top are separated by a little over 20 seconds. The individual with the top PR coming into this race is the junior Abby Syverson from Pelican Rapids who is looking to hold off the trio of girls from East Grand Forks which include the 8th grader Lydia Floden, the senior McKenna Langerud, and the sophomore Marin Garrett. With the wind, this may be a pack race, and with prior experience running with each other it looks as if this style of running may bode well for the East Grand Forks runners. As far as team scores go, East Grand Forks seems to have a fairly firm handle at the top, but Pelican Rapids isn't too far behind, and they could certainly make strong moves throughout the race to shake up the predictions a bit. This is going to be an exciting race, and like the boys race we will see how the weather may influence the strategies of the runners.