Location: Les Bolstad Golf Course, Falcon Heights
Weather: Mid-40's, mostly cloudy, light winds
BOYS VIRTUAL MEET
TEAMS TO WATCH: White Bear Lake, Stillwater, Saint Paul Highland Park
INDIVIDUALS TO WATCH: Oliver Paleen (SPHP, 15:46), Maxwell Nelson (WBL, 15:56), Mickies Kiros (SP Central, 15:59), Aidan Browne (Woodbury, 16:03), Isaac Maruyama (WBL, 16:03), Calvin Boone (SPHP, 16:08), Ethan Vargas (Stillwater, 16:14), Joseph Lee (Roseville, 16:15), Conor Gregg Escalante (SPHP, 16:19), Trevor Locke (WBL, 16:23)
THE SKINNY: While Section 6AA has been deserving of its title as the Section of Death, Section 4AA actually be the section that is the hardest in the State to qualify out of on the boys side in recent memory. Ten of the last twelve years, the two teams to qualify have been Stillwater and White Bear Lake, and once again, those two teams find themselves at the front of the conversation. White Bear Lake, the winners of the Roy Griak Invitational and as-of-yet undefeated in team competition this year (including a big early-season win over Eden Prairie), comes in as favorite on the strength of a stellar top-four, but Stillwater is the deepest team in the state and have the potential for a sub-30-second spread. However, last year was one of the two years as Saint Paul Highland Park managed to qualify for the first time since 1973, and this year, they are again very much in the conversation as the sixth-ranked team in the state. However, despite some close battles, they have yet to beat White Bear Lake or Stillwater in a head-to-head matchup this year and don't have the same type of depth as either team, as they will need to close a significant gap between their 3rd and 4th runners in order to return to State.
Individually, Highland Park's Oliver Paleen will return to the course where he achieved the biggest win of his career at the Roy Griak Invitational. As arguably Minnesota's best runner and the top-ranked runner in Class AA, he'll be a solid favorite, but he won't be absent of serious competition. Saint Paul Central's Mikies Kiros comes into the meet as the second-ranked Class AA runner and fresh off a runner-up finish to Paleen at the St. Paul City Conference Meet, and also with two impressive wins in very adverse conditions, though he has lost to Paleen in head-to-head matchups three times. Max Nelson is the only other runner in the section to run sub-16 minutes after last week's Suburban East Conference Meet, and he should be in the mix also. Aiden Browne, Calvin Boone, Joseph Lee, and Ethan Vargas should be forming a back behind those top runners, but a few of them could try to join that group and get pulled along to a great performance.
GIRLS VIRTUAL MEET
TEAMS TO WATCH: Stillwater, Saint Paul Highland Park, White Bear Lake, Woodbury
INDIVIDUALS TO WATCH: Analee Weaver (Stillwater, 18:13), Molly Moening (SP Highland Park, 18:25), Madeline Verkerke (WBL, 18:42), Iris Guider (SP Central, 18:44), Delia Johnson (SP Highland Park, 18:48) , Brooke Elfert (Stillwater, 18:51), Tiffany Holiday (Woodbury, 18:52), Avery Braunshausen (Stillwater, 18:54), Melanie Pankow (WBL, 19:02), Chloe Koch (SP Highland Park, 19:03)
THE SKINNY: Stillwater's girls are in the midst of a remarkable season in which they have yet to lose to a Minnesota team, highlighted by a two-point margin over Edina at the Roy Griak Invitational and holding off Wayzata by 20 points in Milaca, giving them a strong case of possibly being Minnesota's, and perhaps even the Heartland Region's, best best team this year. But perhaps their two most relevant wins for the sake of this race occurred at the Irish Invitational in August and the Alexandria Meet of Champions two weeks ago, both meets where they defeated both of the section's other strongest contenders, Saint Paul Highland Park and White Bear Lake, by substantial margins, in addition to defeating WBL and Woodbury both at last week's Suburban East Conference Championships. That said, Highland Park's girls have defeated every other Section team as well en route to their attempt to qualify for State for the first time in school history, and they may have just experienced a breakthrough as a team at their own conference championships in which their top four runners all went 19:07 or better. White Bear Lake and Woodbury each have chance to crack the top two, but they'll need several things to play out differently than on race day compared to earlier in the season. For WBL, they'll need a great run collectively from their 2-5 runners to close the gap between them and top runner Maddie Verkerke as much as possible, while Woodbury will need a very big race from Tiffany Holliday, who after a great early-season run at the Augie Twilight has yet to reach that same level of performance since.
Individually, it will be yet another showdown between Stillwater's Analee Weaver and SPHP's Molly Moening, who have already engaged in several impressive duals this year as two of the biggest contenders for a Class AA Championship. Each girl has at least one victory over the other this season, with the 1-second margin of victory by Moening over Weaver at Alexandria being the closest race yet. It would be a huge surprise if someone other than those two runners took home the win, but the pack behind them should be a great race. WBL's Verkerke, Woodbury's Holliday, SP Central's Iris Guider, Highland Park's Delia Johnson, and a trio of Ponies in Brooke Elfert, Avery Braunhausen, and Morgan Peterman have all either been All State or run sub-19 this season.
(written by Mark Rice)