By John George
Perham's cross country team's were over to overcome hot conditions and proved they belong among the state's elite as the girls finished third and the boys fourth at the St. Olaf Showcase Saturday in Northfield.
This is the same course that the State Meet will be run on the first weekend of November.
The girls race, featuring 25 teams, was won by No. 2-AA Minnetonka with a score of 97. No. 10-AA Waseca was second (111), just ahead of Perham (112).
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The Lady Jackets are the No. 2 ranked team in Class A.
Behind Perham was No. 12-AA Apple Valley in fourth (135) in No. 3-A Blake in fifth (137).
Freshman Maddie McClellan, now ranked No. 11 ahead of senior Brittany Gigstead, who is No. 16, was the Jacket top runner Saturday, finishing seventh overall with a time of 15:43. No. 2-A Claire Richardson of Blake was the medalist with a time of 15:09.
"Maddie has run extremely well this season and has proven thus far that she can compete with the top runners throughout the state," head coach Jeff Morris said.
McClellan was the third overall Class A runner. Gigstead was fifth among Class A runners and 13th overall with a time of 15:58. Also scoring for Perham was Sadie Ellenberg in 16th, Holly Sheets, who was 21st and Jenna Gigstead, who was 55th.
"Our girls were really glad to see that they could mix it up with some of the larger schools and do well against No. 3-A Blake," Morris said. "It was good to get four of our girls under 16:15 and our fifth runner down to 17 minutes on this course."
Boys worthy of rankings
Perham's boys had a tough draw as well and finished fourth overall among 25 teams. Winning the race was No. 2-AA Wayzata with a score of 55. No. 6-AA Edina was a distant second with 105, followed by No. 9-AA Stillwater (144) and Perham (149).
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The No. 1-A Jackets were the only Class A school in the top-10. No. 14-A Watertown-Mayer was 14th.
Kevin Lachowitzer proved he is worthy of his new No. 2-A ranking as he finished fourth overall with a time of 16:38. No. 3-AA T.C. Lumbar of Edina won the race with a time of 15:59. The second and third place runners ahead of Lachowitzer were also ranked in the Class AA top-10.
"Kevin ran a great race staying with Lumbar, Ben Blankenship and Tom Burke through the first half of the race," Morris said.
Justin Tellinghuisen also ran an impressive race, finishing 11th (17:14) and fourth among Class A runners.
"Justin continues to improve and is closing the gap between him and Kevin," Morris said.
Perham had nine boys finish under 19 minutes.
"We came out with a strong run in a very deep field," Morris said.
Another big race
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Perham isn't shying away from the competition as they head south again this weekend to take part in the Roy Griak U of M Invite in St. Paul on Saturday.
The race will iclude some of Minnesota's top teams, including the top-2 Class A boys (Willmar & Wayzata) and girls teams (Lakeville North & Minnetonka) as well as the best teams from Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota.
The boys Gold race starts at 12:55 pm, followed by the girls Gold race at 1:40. The boys Maroon race is at 2:25, followed by the girls Maroon race at 3:10.
The girls will be running a 5Kthe same as the boys, rather than their usual 4K.
