MRC Championships

by Lisa Jamison

Throughout this entire cross country season we have seen a lot of exciting events take place with the Belle Plaine Cross Country team. First and foremost the Varsity Girls dominated Conference and successfully defended their Championship without four of the runners who ran varsity last year. Two of our newest runners added to the crew are in Junior High and showed a lot of guts and grace as this big conference championship race was only their 3rd time racing at the 4,000 meter distance. Not only did these Junior High girls PR by a substantial amount they also scored points as our #4 runner (8th grader Skylee Schwingler placing 13th overall PR 17:09) and #5 runner (7th grader Hannah Witt placing 15th PR 17:13). The other phenomenal runners include Junior Captain Janessa Meuleners placing 4th 15:43, Sophomore Alissa Schultz placing 8th PR 16:24, Sophomore Danika Schroeder placing 10th PR 16:36, Senior Captain Breann McDermand placing 28th 18:03 and Freshman Hailey Witt running with a cold and a head full of snot placing 33rd 18:20. To top off the Varsity’s win Meuleners, Schultz and Schroeder walked away with top ten MRC All Conference honors!

However the Belle Plaine Cross Country team is more than just the seven girl varsity runners and the seven varsity boy runners. In fact on both our squads we have seen many different faces lined up at the varsity starting lines throughout this season’s meets. But we have also seen multiple 1st place team finishes from our Junior Varsity and Junior High teams. Thursday October 10th’s MRC Conference Meet was no different!

Junior Varsity boys stole the MRC Conference Championship with an impressive 4th-11th place finish. Belle Plaine boys kicked it into high gear after Jordan’s boys finished 1,2,3 and in the end Belle Plaine boys edged the Jordan boys out of a trophy by just 1 point. 4th place was Junior Captain Max Hughes with another phenomenal PR of the season18:50, right behind him 5th place Junior Captain Carter Olson 18:59, 6th place Junior Tyler Shoemaker 19:06, 7th place Freshman Nate Loegering PR 19:15, 8th place 8th grader Kyle Siemon 19:25, 9th place Sophomore Sam Gregory 19:27, 10th place Sophomore Taylor Witt 19:29 and 11th place Sophomore Derek May 19:29.6. Our other amazing racers included 17th place Sophomore Steven Lajeunesse PR 19:50, 1st year runner Sophomore Brenden Solheid PR 20:53, Sophomore Noah Mewes 21:52, First year runner Junior Nick Covington 22:14, Sophomore Ryan Bremseth-Vining 22:18, Freshman Hayden Cody who set a new PR every time he raced this year 23:44, Freshman John Morrison 23:53 and Sophomore Bryce Nelson 25:44.

Junior Varsity girls rocked conference defending their 2012 conference championship. Sophomore Trinity Webb was the first one through the shoot with a PR of 17:49! Sophomore Kacie Staples placed 5th with 18:45, Freshman Emily Krautkremer placed 6th 19:19, Junior Courtney Fogarty placed 9th 19:19, Senior Captain Corey Krautkremer placed 10th 19:28, Freshman Alexa Lenz PR’d to place 14th 19:58 and Freshman Selin Dikmen also PR’d placing 16th with 20:30. The rest of our exceptional Junior Varsity girls include Freshman Kate Haege with a huge PR of 20:53, Sophomore Allison Lunsten21:52 and Senior Captain Tori Schroeder 21:58.

Junior High was not about to be out done by their upper classman peers. Junior High boys crushed their competition earning their conference championship with six boys covering this hilly 1 mile course in under 6 minutes and placing 1-3,9-10, 12,14. 1st place 7th grader Elliott Rudd PR 5:35, 2nd place 8th grader Noah Hastings PR 5:36, 3rd place 7th grader Mikkel Schmidt PR 5:40, 9th place 7th grader Tristan Cruz PR 5:56, 10th place 7th grader Jesse Barringer PR 5:58, 14th place 7th grader Braydon Setterquist PR6:12, 20th place 8th grader Kenny Dvorak PR 6:21. Rounding out the phenomenal Junior High milers was Jaron Funk 7th grader PR 6:30, Ethan Keohavong 7th grader PR 6:35, Luke Hallgren 8th grader PR 6:49, Tyler Bahr 7th grader 6:54, Noah Stiemke 7 grader PR6:56 and Logan Peterson 7th grader PR 7:16.

Of course we can not forget Belle Plaine’s Varsity Boys team. As a team these boys are getting stronger and stronger. At the 2012 MRC Conference Championship they were counted out by almost all of the other teams. But with all 7 of the boys PR-ing by almost 1 minute each they were able to pull off a huge surprise 4th place finish and send shock waves through the conference as the 2012 team was made up of 6 underclassman and 1 senior. 2013 proved to be an even better year as they were in the hunt to place in the top three in conference and did just that finishing 3rd place behind a very strong Jordan and TCU team. This year’s conference squad was comprised of 2 Seniors, 1 Junior, 3 Sophomores and a Freshman, this is just a glimpse into the future for them! Sophomore Dylan Bigaouette placed 5th receiving All-Conference honors with a PR of 17:43. Behind him running on a very sore but healing sprained ankle was Sophomore Brendan Mackedanz who placed 14th 18:08, Freshman Kellen Bergs placed 19th 18:26, Senior Captain Kris Corl out sprinted his brother in the last 200 meters for 20th place 18:41, Carter Corl placed 21st 18:44, Junior Tony Dvorak placed 34th 19:47 and bringing in the rear with a leg injury Senior Captain Zander Stier placing 47th 20:55.

The cherry on top after all the MRC championship races were complete was the absolute and total domination by the Junior High girls with their perfect score of 15 allowing them to successfully defend their conference championship title. Placing 1st 7th grader Jessica Brueggemeir PR’d with a 6:32:3,2nd place 7th grader Jamie Zahn PR 6:32.4, 3rd place 7th grader Cassie Stolt PR 6:33, 5th place 8th grader Grace Ludvik PR 6:47, 6th place 7th grader Kailey Noll PR 6:50, 10th place 8th grader Vanessa Rosales 6:53, 11th place 8th grader Thea Iverson PR 6:54, 12th place 7th grader Sophie Mewes PR 7:04, 16th place 7th grader Nicolle Lundsten PR 7:10, 18th place 7th grader Sophie Wright PR7:14 and 20th place 7th grader Emma Reed PR 7:50.