Running in the rain

By John George

sports@eot.com

Rain and threatening weather didn't seem to bother the Perham cross country teams to badly. Both boys and girls teams dominated their races Tuesday as the Jackets splashed their way to easy wins.

The boys team was one point from a perfect score as they finished 1-2-3-4-6 for 16 points Tuesday at Arvig Park.

Kevin Lachowitzer once again earned medalist honors with a time of 16:23.

"Kevin continues to run strong at the front of races and his teammates continue to close the gap," head coach Jeff Morris said.

Lachowitzer was followed by Justin Tellinghuisen in second, Nick Adkins in third and Eddie Stenger in fourth place. Perham's fifth runner, Bryan Paridon, was passed at the finish line, preventing the Jackets from a perfect cross country team score of 15 points.

"A few weeks ago, we had a two-minute spread between our first and fifth runners," Morris said. "Now we have a 53 second spread between them and we have just a minute-and-a-half spread between our first and ninth runners."

Tellinghuisen and Adkins ran personal bests, both breaking the 17 minute mark for the first time.

"After running at St. Olaf and the Roy Griak meets, our top 9-10 guys have really started to develop confidence racing at the front," Morris said.

Alex Barney ran a personal best 17:57 to win the boys J.V. race.

The girls didn't have a problem running in the rain either as they cruised to a first place finish with 22 points.

Brittany Gigstead earned medalist honors with a time of 15:10, a personal best. Maddie McClellan also ran a personal best in finishing second with a time of 15:25.

"I was proud of how they work together through two miles and tried to keep our girls close together in the early part of the race," Morris said.

Sadie Ellenberg finished fourth (15:45), followed by Holly Sheets (15:49) in seventh and Jenna Gigstead in eighth (16:05).

"We had very solid performances from our 3-4-5 runners today," Morris said. "We just missed putting our top five runners under 16 minutes."

Not far behind Jenna Gigstead were Perham's 6-7 runners, Maddie Covington and Alli Januszewski, who finished 13th and 14th, respectively.

"Those girls are looking better each meet and will give our girls great depth," Morris said.

Near sweep

To say the Jackets dominated at the Fergus Falls Invite would be an understatement. Of the six races run (boys and girls varsity, boys and girls J.V., and boys and girls jr. high), only the jr. high girls failed to take first place.

The most convincing win was turned in by the varsity boys, who scored a season low 29 points with four runners in the top-10. The Jackets closest competitors, Alexandria, were a distant second with 60 points.

Lachowitzer earned medalist honors with a time of 16:33. Tellinghuisen was fourth overall, clocking an even 17 minutes, five seconds ahead of Eddie Stenger, who was fifth. Adkins was also in the top-10 with a seventh place finish (17:20).

"The best thing about this race was the performance of the guys who closed the gap on our number four runner," head coach Jeff Morris said.

Bryan Paridon, Charlie Nord and Parker Carignan all ran under 18 minutes for Perham and all finished in the top-21.

The varsity girls also won easily with a total of 40 points. Second place Sartell, despite having the top-two individuals, finished with 84 points.

Brittany Gigstead led the way with a third place finish in a time of 15:32, four seconds ahead of Maddie McClellan in fourth place. Holly Sheets came in seventh with Sadie Ellenberg taking 10th.

"Holly and Sadie are closing the gap on our front runners and our fifth runner (Maddie Covington, 16th place) made a big jump today to finish just 15 seconds behind our fourth runner," Morris said.

Alex Barney was the medalist in the boys J.V. race and Alli Januszewski won the girls J.V. race while the jr. high boys beat Bemidji for the first time this year.

HOL Championships

Perham will return to their Arvig Park course next Tuesday, Oct. 10 as they host the Heart O' Lakes Championships, hopefully in much drier conditions.

The junior high races will begin at 4:30 p.m. Girls varsity and junior varsity races will start at 5 p.m., with the boys varsity and junior varsity races scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.

The boys are looking to win their fifth straight HOL title while the girls are shooting for their third in a row.

The boys race will feature the top-two runners in the state in Class A. Warroad's Moses Heppner is ranked No. 1, with Perham's Lachowitzer ranked No. 2.

The boys team race will be interesting to watch as well, with the Jackets ranked No. 1 in Class A and Warroad ranked No. 4.

Following the HOL Championships, Perham will finish their regular season at Park Rapids on Oct. 16.