PREVIEW
MSHSL Section 3A Championships
Location: Luverne High School
Weather: Mostly Cloudy Skies. Showers probable. High of 51.
BOYS
Season Best Projections: Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd (48), Redwood Valley (80), Luverne (82), Canby/Minneota (134)
Season Average Projections: Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd (37), Redwood Valley (80), Luverne (86), Canby/Minneota (157)
Top Individuals: Dalton Piotter (Mountain Lake High, 16:30), Mikey Kvaal (LQPVDB, 16:36), Ezekiel Sather (LQVPDB, 16:39), Jayson Peyrel (Redwood Valley, 16:44), Mitchell Buerkle (Springfield/Cedar Mountain, 17:00), Dalton Desollar (Luverne, 17:07), Justin Clarke (Murray County Central/Fulda, 17:13), Brayden Tofteland (Luverne, 17:15), Mason Clark (Redwood Valley, 17:19), Mason Brehmer (LQPVDB 17:22)
The Skinny: With several runners running a sub 17 minute 5K so far this season, Thursday's race looks to be a good one. Mountain Lake High School Senior Dalton Piotter is slated to be the top runner at the Section 3A Championships in Luverne. Piotter has been having a solid season, with top finishes virtually across the board. Most recently he had a first place finish at the Red Rock Conference Championships and a PR of 16:30 at the Redwood Valley Invite back at the end of September. Two of Lac qui Parle's top runners include Mikey Kvaal, and Ezekiel Sather who will give Dalton Piotter a run for his money. Kvaal has also had a strong XC season with recent 1st place finishes at the Yellow Medicine East, Luverne, and Camden Invites. Sather has been following Kvall close behind, finishing in 2nd place at those same 3 Invites. Jayson Peyrel (Redwood Valley) has recently been running solid races, with a 1st place 16:44 PR at the Big South Conference Meet, finishing almost ten seconds ahead of Seth Pierson, and a few weeks before the Big South Meet, Peyrel had a 1st place win at the BOLD invite. Also at the BOLD invite was Mitchell Buerkle (Springfield), who had a PR of 17:00 and a second place finish. He also just recently had a 1st place run at the Tomahawk All Conference Meet with a time of 18:05. Mikey Kvaal ran a 16:29 for second place at the 3A Championships last year, so it will be interesting to see if he can outrun top ranked Piotter in Thursday's race.
Lac qui Parle Valley ended up with 35 points last year, and they look to be the likely favorite again this year with a prediction of 48 points. Senior Keiser Freetly was Lac qui Parle's top runner last year and helped the team win with 64 points, but it looks like they won't need him for a win on Thursday with their comfortable lead in the projection and in all their head-to-head matchups this year. Coming in at second in terms of team points looks to be Redwood Valley with 80 in both versions of the virtual meet, but both versions place Luverne right on their heels. The only time the two teams have matched up this year was at the Big South Conference championships where Redwood Valley scored 52 points compared to Luverne's 68. However, Luverne was without their fifth runner Jonah Friedrichsen, who could have made a big difference in that race (Luverne would have beaten them if he ran at least 18:21, and his season-best is 17:59), so whether or not he's able to run at Sections will be a huge factor in whether or not Luverne can beat Redwood Valley to qualify.
GIRLS
Season Best Projections: Luverne (51), Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd (95), Canby/Minneota (123), Pipestone Area (130)
Season Average Projections: Luverne (42), Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd (89), Canby/Minneota (112), Redwood Valley (135)
Top Individuals: Morgan Gehl (MCC, 17:55), Tenley Nelson (Luverne, 18:13), Grace Drietz (Canby/Minneota, 18:32), Regan Feit (Luverne, 19:03), Isabel Schirm (LQPVDB, 19:29), Catherine Buffie (Redwood Valley, 19:37), Mikayla Johnson (SWMC, 19:48), Brooklynn Versteeg (Luverne, 19:54), Clarissa Vanderwal (Ortonville, 19:58), Grace Hegland (LQPVDB, 20:13)
The Skinny: Third-ranked Luverne looks to have a comfortable lead for the girls at the 3A Championship Meet on Thursday with a point projection of 51 and some of the best runners in Class A on their side. Luverne won the 3A Championships last year and it's virtually assured they will repeat this year, especially with Tenley Nelson and Regan Feit leading the way for the team. Ninth-ranked Lac qui Parle Valley finished 2nd last year with 61 points, and they are projected to do so again this year. The one time they matched up agains Luverne this year, the race was actually very close and the two teams were just separated by five points, but in a bigger meet Luverne's advantage of having two excellent low sticks will be more pronounced. Canby/Minneota, meanwhile, has actually battled very well against LQVPDB over several matchups, finishing just nine points, 16 points, and two points behind them in their three matchups (which were all fairly small meets), so a great run by a few of Canby's runners could swing the tide in their favor.
The top runner at Luverne will be Morgan Gehl, who has been having a phenomenal season running the 5K, with first place finishes across the board. She most recently ran an 18:52 for a 1st place finish with a large gap ahead of 2nd finisher at the Red Rock Conference Championships. She also had an unbelievably impressive sub 18 min. run, with a PR of 17:55 at the BOLD Invite back in the beginning of October, finishing a whole 2 minutes and 62 seconds ahead of Grace Feder who had the second-place finish. Gehl won the 5000 meter race last year in the MSHSL 3A Championships, and it's virtually assured that she will be the top finisher again at this year's race. Tenley Nelson will likely be leading the pack for the overall 5th ranked Luverne. Tenley recently just had a PR of 18:13, and a 1st place finish at the Big South Conference Meet. Grace Drietz of Canby High School with solid finishes throughout the entire XC season. Notable mentions include a 4th place finish at the Milaca Mega Meet with a time of 19:20, and most recently a 1st place win at the Camden Conference Championships with a time of 19:07. Regan Feit, Luverne's second top runner will likely finish in the top 5 on Thursday. She has a PR of 19:03 this season, which she ran at the Saint James Invite back in September.