Great Meets In Perham And Owatonna Highligh Another Big Day

PREVIEW

Location: Lewiston Country Club, Lewiston

Weather: Low 50s and cloudy

BOYS

Virtual Meet Projections: La Crescent-Hokah (68), Stewartville (75), Pine Island (95), Byron (96)

Top Individuals: Axel Daood (Saint Charles, 16:36), Tanner Horton (Pine Island, 17:02), Luke O'hare (Lewiston-Altura, 17:08), Korrigan Diercks (Saint Charles, 17:10), Alexander Lawrence (Stewartville, 17:15)

The Skinny: A very evenly-matched group of individuals will be competing against each other today. The top runner in the field is Luke O'hare because he is undefeated against this competition this year. He most recently beat Axel Daood and Korrigan Diercks at the St. Charles Invitational where he came away with the win in 17:16 where Diercks and Daood both ran 18:01 and were only separated by 0.3 seconds. Behind O'hare the race will be very tight with a whole slew of runners in tow. The team race will also be very close between La Crescent-Hokah, Lewiston-Altura and Stewartville with Pine Island and Byron not far behind. LCH has a tight pack with the top five season bests only being separated by 33 seconds. That can also hurt them because their top runner is only projected to finish in ninth. Most recently LCH beat LA by only one point and Stewartville by 11 points. The rematch will be a fun one to watch.

GIRLS

Virtual Meet Projections: Stewartville (34), Rochester Lourdes (78)

Top Individuals: Kailee Malone (Stewartville, 19:04), Lauryn Renier (Rochester Lourdes, 19:45), Kayla Christopherson (Pacelli, 19:49), Laura Pedelty (Stewartville, 20:14), Isabel Field (Stewartville, 20:14)

The Skinny: With a standout front runner in Kailee Malone and a pack of teammates behind her, Stewartville is very deserving of their fourth place ranking in Class A. They will be very tough to beat at today's meet with four runners projected to finish in the top ten. Malone will also be well ahead of the competition, coming into the meet with a season best 40 seconds faster than the rest of the field and being ranked twelfth. She is currently on a winning streak, having won her last two meets. After a 13th place finish last year at the state meet, she looks to be in about the same shape as she was at this point last year. Coming in behind her is are two other solid runners in Lauryn Renier and Kayla Christopherson. They finished in seventh and eighth at their last race, the ZM/KW Invitational where Renier ran a personal best and finished ahead of Christopherson. It will be exciting to watch their rematch as they chase each other behind Malone.