Knights top the competition at LP-GE

Both West Central Area cross country teams took first place at the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle Invitational on Monday, Sept. 13, in Long Prairie.

Alex Salwasser and Lexi Bright led the way for boys and girls with times of 16:48 and 20:33, respectively. Salwasser cut over eight seconds off his season best time and has improved each meet to start the season.

Kade Runge and Roman Mihailovski finished third and fifth overall for the Knights.

“Roman looked fresh and strong,” first-year coach Austin Hanson said. “Most of the kids had really sore legs, but they managed to impress us with their resiliency once again.”

For the girls, Terina Blascyk finished in eighth place with a time of 22:11.6. Victoria Junker improved her season best by 10 seconds from the season opener Aug. 28, and Kyra Beyer debuted on varsity posting a 23:12.4, which was good for 12th at the meet.

“Some young athletes ran in their first 5K of the year. Aaron Biss (eighth grade) for the boys ran a time of 22:21, very fast but not fast enough to beat his brother, Tyler (senior), who ran a 20:20. Seventh grader Kyra Beyer also ran her first 5K and was very impressive, posting a time of 23:12 and placing third on the team behind Bright and Terina Blasyck (22:11),” Hanson said.

The Knights bring momentum from winning the LP-GE meet into the Tuesday, Sept. 21 meet at Melrose and now get to see how WCA stacks up against other top competition in the state at the Milaca Mega Meet Saturday, Sept. 25.

LP-GE Meet

GIRLS TEAM SCORING – (1) West Central Area 54 (2) Holdingford 90 (3) St. John’s Prep 90 (4) Melrose 100 (5) Pillager 127 (6) Paynesville 166 (7) Sauk Centre 194 (8) Frazee 202 (9) Border West 210 (10) Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 210

TOP FIVE – (1) Lexi Bright, WCA 20:33.5 (2) Olivia Pauly, STP 20:44.5 (3) Erin Borash, Royalton 21:10.6 (4) Kayla Meyer, Melrose 21:13.0 (5)Emma Reeder, Pillager 21:27.4    

WCA 5K – (1) Lexi Bright 20:33.5 (8) Terina Blascyk 22:11.6 (12) Kyra Beyer 23:12.4 (15) Alexa Blume 23:32.5, Victoria Junker 23:38.7, Kennedy Porter 23:41.0, Blaire Rueter 24:58.2

BOYS TEAM SCORING – (1) West Central Area 36 (2) St. John’s Prep 72 (3) Sauk Centre 117 (4) Holdingford 117 (5) Melrose 165 (6) Brandon-Evansville 168 (7) Royalton 207 (8) Osakis 208 (9) Border West 210 (10) Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 231 (11) Frazee 278 (12) Parkers Prairie 335 (13) Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 362 (14) Pillager 401

TOP FIVE – (1) Alex Salwasser, WCA 16:48.6 (2) Brandon Kampsen, SC 16:53.3 (3)  Kade Runge, WCA 17:31.1 (4) Nathan Johannsen, Frazee 17:37.4 (5) Roman Mihailovski, WCA 17:51.2

WCA 5K –  (1) Alex Salwasser 16:48.6 (3) Kade Runge 17:31.1 (5) Roman Mihailovski 17:51.2 (8) Shad Swanson 18:17.9 (19) Eli Bergman 18:49.2 (44) Tyler Biss 20:20.5 (45) Noah Olson 20:22.