By John George | www.lakesareasports.com - Northfield, MN
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For the 5th time in school history, the Perham boys cross country team finished in 2nd place at the Class A State Cross Country Meet in Northfield at St. Olaf College. In the closest race since 1985, Perham finished with 73 points, just one-point behind St. Cloud Cathedral (72) for the State title.
The individual medalist was the Section 8A champ, Nevis’s Bryon Schuldt, who had a time of 15:55.
“With the seniors we lost last year, I don’t think anyone thought we’d be in this position,” head coach Jeff Morrissaid. “It’s never fun to finish 2nd, especially by one-point. But the guys did amazing.”
Perham won their 3rd State title last season, and were ranked No. 2 entering this year’s race. St. Cloud Cathedral was the No. 1 ranked team going into State.
“It stinks to come in 2nd, but our effort was there. St. Cloud proved to be the better team today,” Perham’s top runner, Brady Speicher said. “We were feeling pretty good about the race. We knew it was going to be close, maybe just a couple of points. We wanted to be the best team, it just wasn’t our year.”
Speicher led the team with a 4th place finish among team runners, and 11th overall, with a time of 16:33.
“I could see Cathedral’s No. 1 and 2 runners,” Speicher said. “I wanted to look back so bad to see if our 2-3 runners were right with me. It’s nerve-wracking to not know how your teammates are doing during the race.”
His teammates were doing just fine.
Billy Beseman was next in 12th place among team runners and 23rd overall in 16:51. Other scoring runners were: Nick Carignan(29th overall, 14th team—16:59), Jayden Cullen(33rd overall, 16th team—17:02), and Dalton Dahms(51st overall, 27th team—17:19).
“All week, I got a feeling with all the buzz in on-line forum’s and where you go to see results, and when all the predictions came in, a lot of people had us pegged as no better than 4th best team,” Morris said. “Even with the pre-season rankings. I don’t think these guys got the respect they deserve because we lost 4 guys from our championship team. People were just not expecting this out of us. They did amazing. They worked so hard to prove people wrong and they almost won it. Just 1-point. Man.”
Also running for the Jackets were Chris Knutson(77th—17:37) and Mark Huebsch(105th—17:58).
“I got them together after the race and told them, “Guys, I never said you have to be happy with what ever place you finish, but you can be happy with how you raced.”
Brady almost made it to the podium (top-10), we had 2 All-State (Top-25, Speicher and Beseman) and we almost had 4. Guys like Billy, Chris, Mark, Jayden. This was their 1st State meet and they did awesome.”
Prior to the race, Speicher had some words of inspiration for his team. He pulled out a note card and read this speech. It’s from the movie “Miracle”, and it’s the speech Minnesota legend Herb Brooks gave to the U.S.A Olympic hockey team before their “Miracle on Ice” against the U.S.S. R.
“Great moments are born from great opportunity. And that's what you have here today, boys.
That's what you've earned here, today. One race.
If we played 'em ten times, they might win nine.
But not this race. Not today.
Today, we “run” with 'em. Today, we stay with 'em, and we shut them down because we can! Today, we are the greatest cross country team in the world.
You were born to be runners-- every one of ya. And you were meant to be here tonight.
This is your time. Their time -- is done. It's over.
I'm sick and tired of hearin' about what a cross country team St. Cloud has. Screw 'em!
This is your time!! Now go out there and take it!”
The team followed the speech by taking off their hats to reveal freshly shaved Mohawks.
“This finish will definitely get us pumped for next year,” Speicher said. “Even next week we get to go at them again at the Nike meet, and we’re hoping we can start getting our revenge there.”
The Jackets don’t have any seniors on the team, and will add a former State participant, sophomore Keegahn Hurley, who sat out this season because of MSHSL transfer rules.
“I really have to thank Keeghan,” Speicher added. “He helped our team so much this year. He wasn’t able to compete, but he was pushing us in practice every day. We can’t wait to have him officially on the team.”
“Next year will be great,” Morris said. “But we need to celebrate this season 1st.”
But the boys aren’t looking forward to next year. They are looking forward to the next month. The Jackets will be running in a pair of post-season regional races. The Nike Meet in Wisconsin, and the Heartland race in South Dakota. Hurley is expected to run with the team in both races.
Morris finished by saying that if you have to finish 2nd, this is the way to do it. By the narrowest of margins.
“You could shuffle the deck and run that race 10 more times, and we’d (Perham and Cathedral) both win 5 times,” Morris said.
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| SCORING SUMMARY: |
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Class A State Cross Country St. Olaf College, Northfield Boys Team Results 1. St. Cloud Cathedral 72 2. Perham 73 3. Minnehaha Academy 132 4. Blake 137 5. Crosby-Ironton 168 6. Waseca 194 7. Albany 237 8. Redwood Valley 238 9. Mesabi East 252 10. Otter Tail Central 260 11. Mora 262 12. Plainview-Elgin-Millville 263 13. Martin County West 277 14. Luvurne 282 15. D-G-F 297 16. Winona-Cotter 304 Medalist Bryon Schuldt (Nevis) 15:55.3 Perham Runners 11. (4) Brady Speicher 16:33 23. (12) Billy Beseman 16:51 29. (14) Nick Carignan 16:59 33. (16) Jayden Cullen 17:02 51. (27) Dalton Dahms 17:19 77. Chris Knutson 17:37 105. Mark Huebsch 17:58 D-G-F Runners 19. (9) Tyler Hennen 16:44 87. (53) Tanner Hennen 17:41 101. (65) Austin Schultz 17:52 119. (82) Tony Santos 18:22 125. (88) Ryan Leech 18:34 Section 8A Runners 26. Isaac Overmeyer (Park Rapids) 16:56 30. Cody Bekkerus (Pelican Rapids) 17:01 63. Michael Ryan (Pequot Lakes) 17:27 64. Wesley Davies (Bagley/Fosston) 17:28 Otter Tail Central 37. (19) Luke Himmelspach 17:06 78. (46) Ryan Olson 17:37 88. (54) DJ Cline 17:42 102. (66) Zach Johnson 17:55 112. (75) Ben Himmelspach 18:06 |