Over A Dozen Meets Make Up Massive Day Of Racing

East Grand Forks Invite

Location: Valley View Golf Course, East Grand Forks

Weather: 47, cloudy, chance of rain, very windy

BOYS

Virtual Meet Projection: Red River (35), East Grand Forks (38), Ada-Borup/NCW (94)

Top Individuals: Cole Nowacki (East Grand Forks, 16:13), Tyson Mahar (East Grand Forks, 16:21), Jake Arason (Red River, 16:24), Christian Sterton (Ada-Borup/NCW, 16:31),Sakariye Ismail (East Grand Forks, 16:36)

The Skinny: Red River High School is coming off a win in the Division 2 race at the Milaca Mega Meet, and look very well-positioned to take home a win in EGF too. They have 8 of the 13 fastest runners in the field based on PRs. But East Grand Forks, the 11th-ranked team in Class A, will try to make it close thanks to their stellar quartet of runners who all come in with time of 17:00 or better this season. Their issue was, is, and will be for the rest of the season, the distance from their fourth to their fifth runner, which at the moment is a full 1:45. In fact, Red River has an astounding fifteen runners who own PRs faster than EGF's 5th. In order for EGF to make a real impact at the State level, they're going to need a runner (be it Seth Hootie, Dawson McDonald, or someone else) to drop some time. The fact that EGF comes so close to winning the virtual meet, however, is a testament to just how good their front four are. Cole Nowacki and Tyson Mahar have traded the top spot on the team at times this year, and will try to keep the individual title at home, while Jake Aranson, the 3rd-place finisher at Milaca will try to take the title to the other side of Red River. And, of course, All-State runner Christian Sterton continues to improve after starting his season late with an injury, and could be a factor in the individual race too.

GIRLS

Virtual Meet Projection: Red River (24), East Grand Forks (53), Warroad (81)

Top Individuals: Morgan Stenseth (Red River, 19:40), Campbell Dorsey (Red River, 19:48), Emily Nelson (Red River, 19:56), Lydia Floden (East Grand Forks, 20:08), McKenna Langerud (East Grand Forks, 20:23)

The Skinny: The battle for the team title will once again be between EGF and Red River, but this time Red River is projected to have a little more margin and they have the only three runners in the field to go sub-20 minutes. Even if Morgan Stenseth does not run (as it's been a month since she last did), Red River's margin of victory looks fairly comfortable due to their ten runners with PRs of 22 minutes or better. That said, most of those times came from last year, while many EGF runners have already run PRs in 2018, so the race could finish a bit closer than projected. With the statis or Morgan Stenseth in the air, the individual battle will likely come down to one of either Campbell Dorsey, emily Nelson, or Lydia Floden. Floden is coming of her best race of the season in Bagley last week, and is on the cusp of breaking the 20-minute barrier, so it would be cool for her to do so and get the first cross country win of her career at the same time. Meanwhile, Dorsey just ran her own best race of the year at Milaca, so she is clearly in good shape too.