After strong runs on the familiar paths of Baylor Park in Norwood Young America on September 10 and the Riverview Golf Course in New Richland on September 17, the Loyola/Cleveland cross country teams will chart a new course today (Tuesday) when, competing against Lester Prairie, they run through around the Cleveland football field and along Cherry Creek.
“Brad Strobel (father of Nathan Strobel, CHS 2024) had the idea last year, but we couldn’t find a team to compete against,” said athletic director Rich Kern. “We were able to schedule Lester Prairie this season, so we got things going right away. Brad mapped out the course and got most of the work done with the city and the homes around the park.”
The race will start near the back side of the new school addition, head down the south and west side of the football field area and then along the creek to Cherry Creek park. It will then circle back and follow the north and east side of the football field to start a second lap. After four laps (two laps for the junior high), the runners will cross the finish line close to where the race started (see map above).
The biggest challenge to hosting a meet in Cleveland was finding enough connected grassy areas to make a 5K course, said cross country assistant coach Casey Olson.
“While space in town is limited in that regard, our team is going to approach this course focusing on becoming stronger and some of the little things that we need to work on as we head into the home stretch of the season.”
But Olson said that the team is excited about having a meet in Cleveland.
“This has never been done before, so we believe it will be a great opportunity to make the sport a little more visible within the Cleveland community since all our home meets have been hosted in Mankato. As a team and coaching staff, we are excited about the growth this can potentially lead to within the Cleveland school district.”
Olson said that organizing the 5K required extra effort and cooperation, and he was grateful for that.
“I’d like to express a big thank you to Brad Strobel and Cleveland Public Works for their effort in creating this meet. I’d also like to thank the neighbors of Cherry Creek Park for their support and Cleveland Public Schools administration for their help getting this meet over the finish line.”
The starting gun for the junior high meet goes off at 4:15. The boys varsity boys start at 4:40, and the girls varsity start is at 5:15.
Results: Lions meet at Baylor Park, NYA
In the varsity girls race, Charlotte Meyer’s 18:43.37 PR finish was good for first place. The silver medalist was over 7 seconds behind her. There were 130 runners competing. Valarie Quast was 24th with a 21:30.39, Gisele McCabe was 27th with a 21:41.28, Molly Koester was 41st with a 22:25.06, and Kate Daly was 45th with a 22:39.07.
The Crusader team finished fourth overall and first in Class A.
In the varsity boys race, the Crusaders were fifth overall and first among Class A teams.
With a 16:34.11, Soren Kelly took third among the 151 runners. The winning time was a blistering 16:00.97. TJ Waldron was next for the Crusaders. His 18:00.09 finish was good for 33rd place. Mitchell Bulboltz was 42nd with an 18:24.91 finish, Kyle Zimmerman was 53rd with a 18:40.95 finish, and Rollie Matejcek was 67th with a 19:05.96. Behind the top five was Jackson Blitz, who finished 136th with a 22:23.98.
In the JV 5K race, Elijah Mons finished 49th of 125 runners with a 22:18.08. Jax Leagjeld was 86th with a 24:21.74. The winning time was 18:17.73.
In the girls junior high 1600-M race, Harper Rutz was 18th among the 75 runners with a 7:02.81. The winning time was 6:07.02.
Crossing the finish in the junior high boys 1600-M race at the 6:15.87 mark, Griffin Rutz was 27th among 114 runners. Reece Nelson was 33rd with a 6:19.18. Andrew Giebel was 75th with a 7:12.54. The winner took 5:30.88 to complete the course.
Results: Riverview Golf Course, New Richland
With a 16:45.2, Kelly earned gold in the varsity boys race and led the Crusaders to a first-place finish among six teams. Sam Vetter came in second overall with a 17:25.5. Waldron was sixth with an 18:11.6, Bulboltz was eighth with a 18:20. 7, and Zimmerman was 11th with a 19:13.5. Up with the varsity Leagjeld was 49th with a 25:08.3.
Austin Pacelli scored a 57, 33 points in back of Loyola Cleveland. TCU was third with a 78, Randolph was fourth with a 111, WEM/JWP was fifth with a 133, and Medford was sixth with a 142.
On the varsity girls competition, Meyer was first with an 18:43.7. Quast finished in fifth place with a 21:38.6, Koester was 11th with a 23:08.9, Izzy Endres was 12th with a 23:23.6, and Daly was 15th with a 23:46.4. Pushing the top five along were Teya Waagner in 22nd place with a 24.37.5 and Charlotte Kirschner in 24th place with a 24:48.9.
With 37 points, the Clippers fell to Pacelli by three points. TCU was in third with a 75, WEM/JWP totaled 94 points, Randolph had a 119, and Medford scored a 163.
In the boys junior high 1.25-mile race, Griffin Rutz came in third with a 7:40.1 while Nelson, just 0.6 seconds behind him, was fourth. Giebel came in 21st with a 9:15.3. Crusader Francis Bierer was first among the 37 runners with a 7:19.5 finish.
With a 8:45 finish, Harper Rutz was fifth among 18 runners in the girls junior high 1.25 mile. Her teammate Riley Quigley won the race with an 8:04.3 finish.
All images courtesy of Casey Olson