2022 MSHSL State Cross Country Championships - Recaps

Class A

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Class A Results:

Boys | Girls

Class A Girls

RankRunnerTeamTime
1

Jade Rypkema

Nevis17:43.47
2

Amanda Overgaauw

Murray County Central17:48.97
3

Ashley Overgaauw

Murray County Central18:52.06
4

Sonja Semling

Cotter18:53.43
5

Jenna DeBates

Luverne18:54.34
6

Anjalie Aho

United North Central18:54.87
7

Audrey Brownell

Staples-Motley18:59.49
8

Addison Hoof

Lester Prairie19:01.05
9

Caroline Kuehne

Long Prairie-Grey Eagle19:01.51
10

Kaylee Walklin

Windom19:04.06

It was a two-runner race the whole way with Jade Rypkema and Amanda Overgaauw facing off head-to-head for the first time this season and the first time since last year's state championships. 

At the mile marker, it was Rypkema and Overgaauw separated from the field already by 10 seconds, 44 seconds at 2 miles, and by over a minute at the finish line. Rypkema won her first official state title for cross country with a time of 17:43.47 narrowly defeating Overgaauw. She did win the TCRC XC Showcase in 2020, but the state XC championships were canceled that year. 

This was Overgaauws first 5K loss since that TCRC XC Showcase in 2020 and ended a 21-race win streak for Overgaauw. 

The Perham girls continued their dominance of Class A by winning their 5th Class A team championships since 2015 (2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022). The Perham girls placed all of their five scoring runners in the top 15 scoring team runners and placed all 5 girls in the top 31 overall. They were able to place all five runners within a 24-second spread of each other to win comfortably by 22 points. 

Class A Boys

RankRunnerTeamTime
1

Brandon Kampsen

Sauk Centre15:49.44
2

Henry Karelitz

Nova Classical Acaemy 15:55.55
3

Bjorn Anderson

Perham15:57.82
4

Will Ahrens

Redwood Valley16:07.81
5

Owen Janiszeski

Luverne16:09.09
6

Noah Foster

Cromwell-Wright16:14.65
7

Cole Stencel

Maple River16:24.03
8

Brady Rach

Bertha-Hewitt16:27.19
9

Garrison Hubka

Kingsland16:29.72
10

Noah Huot

Park Rapids16:30.75

It was a thrilling boy's individual race that saw Brandon Kampsen come from behind to win his first state title. Kampsen won his 11th straight race on the season to stay undefeated with a time of 15:49.44 to beat out Henry Karelitz by 6 seconds. 

It was a big breakthrough win for Kampsen who finished 3rd at last year's Class A state championships and then finished 2nd in the 800m and 3rd in the 1600m at this year's state track and field championships. 

At the mile marker, it seemed as if Perham might run away with things as they were up 57 points to 123 points from Greenway. At the 2-mile mark, it seemed as if it was anyone's race with Heritage Christian Academy, Luverne, Perham, and Park Rapids all separated by just 10 points. 

In the end, it was the Heritage Christian Academy boys who came out on top by just 3 points over Luverne. They did so by employing a 30-second spread compared to Luverne's 1:20 spread.