Great Meets In Perham And Owatonna Highligh Another Big Day

PREVIEW

Owatonna Ev Berg Invitational

Location: Brooktree Golf Course, Owatonna

Weather: Low 50s and cloudy

BOYS

Virtual Meet Projections: Eastview (60), Winona (77), Austin (96)

Top Individuals: Luke Labatte (Rosemount, 16:03), Aj Green (Eastview, 16:21), Colten Brand (Winona, 16:21), Meti Omod (Austin, 16:25), Carter Briggs (Winona, 16:26)

The Skinny: Eastview comes in as the ninth ranked team in Class AA with Winona receiving an honorable mention ranking. Winona actually beat Eastview at the Rochester Mayo Invite by nine points. Another performance like that would help them to get back into the rankings (they were ranked tenth last week). Winona has an incredible top four runners but are missing a crucial solid fifth runner to help them finish off their score. How they finish today comparative to Eastview will be interesting as it will have been three weeks since their last matchup. Luke Labatte is definitely the standout individual in the field. He is coming off of a fourth place finish at the Roy Griak Invitational which matches his current ranking in Class A. His season best time comes from that race which implies that he will most likely run a season best at today's race being that that course is really tough. AJ Green is an interesting runner to watch as he has always been a 400m and 800m specialist in track and has come out for his first year of cross country where he has been making a big statement. At the Rochester Mayo Invite, he finished runner-up to Labatte but only by seven seconds and has run very consistently this season. He will definitely not let Labatte run away with it too easily.

GIRLS

Virtual Meet Projections: Rosemount (60), Mankato West (97)

Top Individuals: Natasha Sortland (Zumbrota-Mazeppa, 18:50), Abigail Lewis (Austin, 18:53), Daisy Islas (Rosemount, 19:07), Anni Skillicorn  (Winona, 19:20), Hannah Lamaster (Rochester Mayo, 19:31)

The Skinny: Both Daisy Islas and her team from Rosemount have honorable mention rankings in Class AA. Although today's meet will likely not affect Rosemount's ranking, it will still be interesting to see how well they fare against this competition. How their top five runners finish amongst each other will be important to note for future performances against tougher competition. Daisy Islas, however, will be going up against Natasha Sortland the young Class A talent (ranked fifth). Daisy Islas is in her first year of cross country and has not shied away from the competition. She was 32nd at Roy Griak Invitational where she ran her personal best of 19:07. Running a personal best on that course is impressive and shows that she has a lot of potential to continue improving. Natasha Sortland is an eighth grader who is hot off of an individual win at the Milaca Mega Meet. Both Sortland and Islas have only race three times this season so they are both really fresh heading into this race. Sortland's personal best comes from this meet last year when she won so it is looking like there is potential for a fast race today.