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This week the Osseo Invitational is back as one of the biggest cross country meets in Minnesota and it's shaping up to be another good one this year with some of Minnesota's top teams and runners.
Here we preview this year's individual and team races and look at the virtual meet!
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Boys Individual Preview
Cade Sanvik is back at the Osseo Invitational this year after finishing 2nd last year behind Emmett Gerres who graduated. Sanvik comes into the meet as the prohibitive favorite with a PR of 15:16 this year which is the best in the field by 26 seconds. Sanvik will face some competition though from Blaines River Santiago, his own teammate in Quinlan Rundquist, and Lev Dougherty of Heritage Christian Academy.
Boys Team Preview
It's shaping up to be a hot race for the boy's team title with five teams standing out in Heritage Christian Academy, Blaine, Belle Plaine, Osseo, and Rosemount. All five of those teams are separated by just 52 in our projected meet results. The Heritage Christian Academy boys come in as the favorite with a projected 65 points. They won their first three meets of the season before finishing 2nd to Perham at the Lucky Lindy Invite and 13th at the Roy Griak. Overall they rank as the #8 team in Minnesota this season and the top team in Class A.
Behind them, they will face stiff competition from the #2 Class AA ranked team in Belle Plaine, two ranked Class AAA teams in Rosemount and Blaine, and a strong Osseo team led by Cade Sanvik.
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Girls Individual Preview
In the girl's individual race, Robbinsdale Armstrong's Caitlyn Osanai will be the prohibitive favorite for the Osseo title. Osanai is the only girl in the field with a PR this season under 19 minutes, has won the St. Olaf HS Showcase, just finished 22nd at Roy Griak, and is the returing Osseo champ. Osanai will not be without competition as there is a strong and deep field of runners that will challenge her in April Watson, Kendra Swanson, Kaelyn Nelson, Kylie Nelson, and Olivia Braunhausen.
Her main challenger might be Kaelyn Nelson of Anoka who owns a PR of 18:30 and was the runner-up at last year's Osseo Invitational. Last year's 3rd place finisher in Kylie Nelson will also return and she has run consistently strong races this year, finishing 2nd in her last three meets.
Girls Team Preview
It looks to be a three-team race on the girl's side with Maple Grove, Centennial, and Belle Plaine clear ahead of the rest of the pack in our virtual meet results. This will be a matchup of the #4 ranked Class AAA team in Centennial, the #12 ranked Class AA team in Belle Plaine, and the #20 ranked overall team in Maple Grove.
Only the Maple Grove and Centennial girls have faced off this season head-to-head at the Maple Grove Crimson Twilight where Centennial beat Maple Grove by 41 points. If we look at team averages overall this season, Maple Grove ranks #18, Centennial ranks #27, and Belle Plaine ranks #34.