Great Meets In Perham And Owatonna Highligh Another Big Day

PREVIEW

Weather: 50 and scattered showers

BOYS

Virtual Meet Projections: Redwood Valley (26), Paynesville Area (61), Murray County Central/Fulda (75)

Top Individuals: Jayson Peyrel (Redwood Valley, 17:02), Mitchell Buerkle (Springfield/CM, 17:10), Preston Carlson (Paynesville Area, 17:14), Mason Clark (Redwood Valley, 17:22), Justin Clarke (Murray County Central, 17:32)

The Skinny: The team from Redwood Valley has a strong group of runners that will be very tough to beat at today's meet. Their top five runners are projected to finish ahead of any team's second runner. With a group like that, it will be hard to come even close to beating them. Paynesville Area and Murray County Central will be the two teams battling for the runner-up position. There are a group of boys that will be gunning for the individual win consisting of Jayson Peyrel, Mitchell Buerkle, Preston Carlson, and Mason Clark. All four have run personal bests this season already but only Peyrel has gotten an individual win. In their one matchup this season, Buerkle beat Peyrel at the Marshall Invite by 14 seconds. Both have had steady improvements since that race so this race will be a good test to see where they are both at. Carlson has had big improvements this year so he will be one to watch as he continues to progress this season.

GIRLS

Virtual Meet Projections: Redwood Valley (45), Murray County Central/Fulda (63), Paynesville Area (70)

Top Individuals: Morgan Gehl (Murray County Central, 18:17), Grace Feder (GFW, 19:32), Catherine Buffie (Redwood Valley, 19:37), Maddie Lesage (Redwood Valley, 20:24), Macy Carlson (Paynesville Area, 20:25)

The Skinny: The fourth ranked individual in Class A, Morgan Gehl, is the big headline for this field. She is currently undefeated this season, having won all six of her races. That winning streak is likely to continue at today's race. Already having run personal bests and more consistently than last season, it will be interesting to watch if she can improve upon her fourth place finish from last year's state meet (which would mean beating at least one of Tierney Wolfgram, Grace Ping, or Lauren Ping). As only a sophomore, she already has two top ten finishes at the State Meet and is likely to add another one this season. Behind her, the race will be on between Grace Feder and Catherine Buffie. Last week, they raced against each other at the Redwood Valley Invite where they both set personal bests and Feder won with a 19:32 ahead of Buffie's 19:37, second place run. The rematch will make for an interesting race between the two. The team title is projected to be given to Redwood Valley but Murray County Central and Paynesville Area should not be counted out. Based on previous results, Murray County Central is the top team in the field, having beat Redwood Valley by 37 points already this season at the Lac Qui Parle Valley Invite.

(written by Emma Benner)
TODAY'S MEETS