Cross Country: Boys 2nd, girls 4th at Lucky Lindy

By news@perhamfocus.com

September 11, 2008 at 11:00 PM

By John George

It wasn't exactly the way you want to start a race, but once the Perham boys cross country team started running, they didn't stop until that had an impressive second place finish at the Lucky Lindy Invitational in Little Falls Thursday.

The Jacket boys were, to say the least, a bit unorganized prior to the start of the boys varsity race. Just two minutes before race time, the boys were still in the team tent, getting shoe laces tied. With literally seconds to go before the gun went off, Perham frantically made their way to their starting lane, still whipping off warm-up pants and t-shirts while jogging into place.

Once the race started, all was fine with the No. 4-A?Jackets as they finished with 101 points in second place. No. 5-AA?Alexandria won the race with 63 points. The Cardinals were led by race medalist, No. 3-AA Drew Paradis's time of 15:52.

"I?didn't realize how close we cut it," said Perham senior Alex Barney.

"I was so mad at them, but then they had to go and run a good race," head coach Jeff Morris said.

Junior Sam Stoll led the way for Perham, finishing 12th with a time of 17:15 on a soggy course. Sophomore Keith Schornack was just a second behind in 13th place. Barney finished 22nd (17:41).

The boys saw a number of personal bests with six runners under 18 minutes and 13 runners (including J.V.) under 19 minutes.

The Jackets finished ahead of No. 6-AA Brainerd (6th place, 150)?and No. 11-A, St. Cloud Cathedral (11th place, 244).

Girls 4th

The Yellow Jacket girls, ranked No. 3-A, finished in fourth place of a very close race. Hopkins won the girls varsity race with 94 points. No. 4-A?Staples-Motley was second with 110, followed by No. 6-AA Grand Rapids (120), Perham (121), Brainerd (123) and Forest Lake (125).

Alexandria freshman Jamie Piepenburg, ranked No. 3 in Class AA, won the race with a blistering time of 14:32.

Maddie McClellan, ranked No. 3 in Class A, was Perham's top finisher, taking seventh in a time of 15:20. No. 4 ranked Abby Anderson was 12th in 15:33.

"Maddie and Abby continued to provide a 1-2 punch for the us in a very competitive field with mostly class AA schools," Morris said.

The Lady Jackets finished with six of the seven varsity runners under 17 minutes, and the seventh runner, senior Leah Miller, came in at 17:11.

"This is so far ahead of where we were at a year ago," Morris said. "We had some really tough workouts over the last week with just a few days of recovery, so the girls know that there is plenty of room for improvement. It will be really neat to see how much these girls will improve over the course of the season."

Meet Notes

In the J.V. races, the Perham boys finished second behind David Altstadt's time of 18:39, while the girls finished third with Jenna Gigstead (17:26) leading the way.

Shane McClellan won the junior high race (11:55) as the Perham boys finished second out of 13 teams. The girls jr. high team was 6th.

Northfield Bound
Perham will take a trip south on Sept. 20 as they run in the St. Olaf Classic in Northfield. It is the same course the State Meet is run on in November.

Thursday, September 11

Lucky Lindy Invitational (Little Falls)

Boys Team Scores

1. #5-AA?Alexandria 63, 2. #4-A?Perham 101, 3. Hopkins 134, 4. #6-AA?Brainerd 136, 5. Grand Rapids 148, 6. Bemidji 150, 7. Staples-Motley 159, 8. Little Falls 214, 9. St. Cloud Tech 218, 10. Setroit Lakes 235, 11. #11-A St. Cloud Cathedral 244, 12. Fergus Falls 277, 13. St. Cloud Apollo 393, 14. Rocori 412, 15. Sauk Rapids 429.

Medalist: Drew Paradis (Alex) 15:52

Perham Individuals: 12. Sam Stoll 17:15, 13. Keith Schornack 17:16, 22. Alex Barney 17:36, 25. Isaac Werner 17:41, 29. Klaus Weber 17:47, 36. Brandon Karels 17:58, 64. Joe Ulrich 18:39.

Girls Team Scores

1. Hopkins 94, 2. #4-A?Staples-Motley 110, 3. #6-AA?Grand Rapids 120, 4. #3-A?Perham 121, 5. Brainerd 123, 6. Forest Lake 125, 7. Alexandria 186, 8. Little Falls 199, 9. Rocori 213, 10. Fergus Falls 225, 11. Apollo 268, 12. Bemidji 286, 13. Tech 329.

Medalist: Jamie Piepenburg (Alex) 14:32

Perham Individuals: 7. Maddie McClellan 15:20, 12. Abby Anderson 15:33, 28. Holly Sheets 16:23, 34. Cassie Beseman 16:42, 40. Maddie Covington 16:50, 44. Shayla Fulford 16:55, 46. Leah Miller 17:11.

Boys Class A?Poll Section 9/1

1. Pequot Lakes 7 1

2. Adrian 3 2

3. Mora 5 3

4. Perham 8 8

5. Blake 4 9

6. Minnehaha Acad. 4 4

7. Plainview-Elgin-Millville 1 5

8. Jackson CC x --

9. Esko 7 6

10. Albany 6 7

Girls Class A?Poll Section 9/1