Over A Dozen Meets Make Up Massive Day Of Racing

Hibbing Rotary Invitational

Location: Hibbing Municiple Golf Course, Hibbing

Weather: 50, likely to rain

BOYS

Virtual Meet Projection*: Cloquet (61), Greenway/Nashwauk-Keewatin (98), Ely (125), North Shore (Cook County/Two Harbors) (129)

Top Individuals: Geno Uhrbom (GNK, 15:36), Cameron Stocke (Virginia, 16:20), Luke Olson (Ely, 16:20), Aidan Ripp (Cloquet, 16:25), Wyatt Rauvola (Cromwell-Wright, 16:27), Tyler Norgord (Grand Rapids, 16:45)

The Skinny: The main attraction to this meet will be the top ranked Class A boy Geno Uhrbom, who just defended his title at the Milaca Mega Meet last weekend in a time of 15:48, 22 seconds quicker than he ran there a year ago. He'll face off with 8th grade phenom Cameron Stocke, who dropped an insane 16:20 at Milaca, leading to him shooting up to 5th in the Class A rankings. Of course, Luke Olson has actually defeated Stocke twice on the year, and been ranked in the polls too, so don't sleep on him. And Aidan Ripp just made his season debut at Milaca, so keep an eye on him to see what sort of shape he's in. He'll have to battle teammates Blaine Bong and Jordan Allen for the Class AA win, who both broke 17:00 at Milaca. Led by those three, Cloquet appears to be the cream of the crop at this race. The North Shore boys will have to battle with GNK for Class A superiority. A strong performance could pull the GNK boys back onto the rankings.

GIRLS

Virtual Meet Projection*: Duluth East (72), Proctor (92), North Shore (Cook County/Two Harbors) (104)

Top Individuals: Sydney Binsfield (Proctor, 19:21), Ryan Ford (International Falls, 19:46), Molly Weberg (Duluth East, 19:49), Rebecca Miles (Duluth East, 19:53), Lauren Cawcutt (Cloquet, 19:56)

The Skinny: With Mesabi East heading to the Maroon Race at Griak, Ava Hill will not be running here. Instead, the favorite will be Sydney Binsfield, who just had the most impressive race of her career, running 19:21 at the Milaca Mega Meet to take 3rd in the Division 3 race. Ryan Ford is the only other girl who has gone under 20:00 this season, after running 19:46 at the Deer River/Northland War Eagles Invitational earlier this week. It was also the first 5k win of her career. Also watch out for Natalie Fultz of Eveleth-Gilbert, who just ran a PR of 20:01 at Milaca and will look to crack 20:00 for the first time. Duluth East's duo of Molly Weberg and Rebecca Miles should also be near the front. They lead the Duluth East girls to the win on paper, in front of Proctor and North Shore. Duluth East should be the top Class AA team by a decent margin. The Proctor Girls have gotten off to a very solid start, and finished one place in front of the North Shore girls at Milaca. Both of these squads made it onto the Class A rankings earlier this season, making for an exciting matchup.

(written by Sam O'Donell-Hoff)

*note: historically, this meet has scored Class A and Class AA teams separately, however, they have run the varsity race with those schools combined, so the virtual meet reflects a combined score