Conference Tuesday - The Biggest Day Of XC Of The Year

Location: Lewiston Country Club, Lewiston

Weather: Low 50's and sunny

BOYS

Virtual Meet Projection: Plainview-Elgin-Millville (36), La Crescent Hokah (60), Lewiston-Altura/Rushford-Peterson (70)

Top Individuals: Austin Dawley (Plainview-Elgin-Millville, 16:34), Axel Daood (Saint Charles, 16:36), Samson Hagen (Plainview-Elgin-Millville, 16:47), Luke O'hare (LARP, 17:08) Korrigan Diercks (Saint Charles, 17:10)

The Skinny: Plainview-Elgin-Millville seems to be the top team in this field, with their ranking of twelfth in Class A. They have a very solid top four but are looking for that fifth runner to round off their score. Their biggest competition will come from La Crescent Hokah and Lewiston Altura. LCH does not have a front runner but has a very tight pack of five runners. The individual race looks like it will come down to Austin Dawley, Axel Daood, and Samson Hagen. Dawley has beat Daood three times this season but not by all that much. Dawley does not have an individual win this year so it will be interesting to see if his first comes from the conference meet. Hagen has had some very good performances this season as well but has not been all that consistent. He has the potential to be up there but it depends on what performance he puts on the table.

GIRLS

Virtual Meet Projection: Cotter (17), La Crescent Hokah (59)

Top Individuals: Grace Ping (Cotter, 18:03), Lauren Ping (Cotter, 18:15), Morgan Arnold (Cotter, 18:46), Madilyn Simon (Plainview-Elgin-Millville, 19:50)

The Skinny: Unsurprisingly, the team from Cotter is expected to take a dominating win today that will help them to continue to solidify their top ranking in Class A. Their top five are expected to finish in the top six, so a perfect score is possible. Their incredible trio of Grace Ping, Lauren Ping, and Morgan Arnold will be tough to beat for the top three spots at today's conference race. The three finished in that order at last year's conference meet, grabbing the 1-3 individual positions. Lauren in currently ranked second with Grace close behind in third and followed up with Arnold ranked sixth making Cotter the only team with more than one runner in the Class A rankings, and they have three. The Ping sisters have been a really close match to each other lately so it will be exciting to watch which one gets the conference win. The three have not raced since the Roy Griak Invitational, which was almost three weeks ago. They will be fresh and ready to test their fitness again today.

(written by Emma Benner)