Big 9 Conference Championships
Boys
Virtual Meet Results: Owatonna (41), Mankato East (76), Rochester Mayo (112), Rochester Century (134), Winona (169), Austin (176), Mankato West (181)
Top Individuals: Isaiah Anderson (16:10.39), Preston Meier (16:15.11), Gavin Hanke (16:28.71), Connor Ginskey (16:38.66), Ryan Gwaltney (16:44.11), Nathan Amundson (16:42.37), Richard Kariuki (16:54.54)
The Skinny: In a normally tight conference meet, the Owatonna boys are projected to dominate the rest of the Big 9, in tune with a projection of 41 points, and winning by 35. They have yet to be beat this season by a Big 9 opponent in 8 races, and we would think they would continue that streak. They are projected to put all their five scoring runners in the top fifteen and are the only team in the field with an average under 17:00.
Isaiah Anderson and Preston Meier will face off against each other again this week after finishing 1st and 2nd at the Mankato East Invite where Anderson beat out Meier by 5 seconds. Both boys set new personal bests at that meet and will go into the Big 9 Conference meet with a lot of momentum.
Anderson has beaten Meier at both the Roy Griak and Mankato East invite this season thus far. Anderson has averaged 16:41 per 5K this season, while Meier has averaged 16:44 per 5K. This should be another close race between the two guys on a course they have both run on plenty of times.
Girls
Virtual Meet Results: Rochester Century (75), Northfield (76), Mankato East (101), Mankato West (110), Owatonna (119), Austin (145), Faribault (187)
Top Individuals: Nora Hanson (19:05.90), Marissa Shute (19:10), Jazzlyn Hanenberger (19:21.90), Caley Graber (19:35.69), Lauren Henkels (19:38.13), Addison Peed (19:40.62), Nicole Swanson (19:40.95)
The Skinny: In what is projected to be one of the closest races of the week, our projection has the Rochester Century girls and Northfield girls separated by just 1 point in our virtual meet results. The two teams have faced off against each other once this season at the Owatonna Ev Berg Invitational where the Century girls beat Northfield by 2 points. They are remarkably similar teams with almost equal team averages and a similar split. It's anyone guess how those few points that separate them will shake out at conference.
The top three projected runners in Nora Hanson, Marissa Shute, and Jazzlyn Hanenberger have faced off once against each other this season at the Mayo Invitational where Hanson beat out Hanenberger and Shute. Since then though, all three girls have all PR'd and taken a minute off their time from the Mayo Invitational.
They have all improved immensely during this season, especially since they last all ran at the same meet. Hanson and Hanenberger are coming into this meet with a lot of momentum after they both PR'd and won their meets last week. Nora Hanson has averaged 20:13 per 5K, Marissa Shute has averaged 20:28, and Jazzlyn Hanenberger has averaged 20:14. With how close the girls are all to each other, it's anyone's guess who will come out on top here.