Area cross country: Bierman, Trost headed to state

Cannon Falls eighth-graders Kaia Bierman and Emi Trost placed fifth and sixth, respectively, at the Section 1A meet and both qualified for the state championships.

Bierman finished in 16 minutes, 24.7 seconds Thursday at Northern Hills Golf Course in Rochester. Trost crossed the line in 16:26.1.

Chatfield's Kayla Woltz, a freshman, won the race in 16:00.1.

"The top five girls passed each other a couple of times and really battled it out during the race," Bombers coach Ben Schopp said. "It was fun to watch and on that particular day the other girls won. Hopefully it will go the other way next week. The girls were very excited and pleased with their effort."

The Class A girls state meet is scheduled for 2 p.m. Nov. 7 at St. Olaf College in Northfield.

Eighth-grader Ashleigh Draille (57th, 19:11.1) and sophomore Krysta Nygaard (111th, 21:54.9) also competed for Cannon Falls. The Bombers did not have a fifth runner and thus didn't place as a team.

Lake City junior Jennifer Martin led the Tigers to an eighth-place finish (226 points). She came in 12th in 17:00.6 and missed a state berth by two spots.

Seventh-grader Hannah Alitz (38th, 18:13.6), freshman Alexis Befort (43rd, 18:26.3), junior Tricia Jennings (71st, 19:48.2) and sophomore Brittany Bauer (75th, 19:51.5) also scored points for Lake City.

Zumbrota-Mazeppa/Kenyon-Wanamingo placed 14th out of the 18 programs that compiled a team score with 314 points.

Senior Gena Gadient was the first Z-M/K-W runner to finish, crossing the line 16th in 17:25.0. The following runners filled the team's four other spots -- eighth-grader Kaitlin Bohn (65th, 19:35.8), sophomore Aubrie Ades (68th, 19:42.0), seventh-grader Tianna Beniak (80th, 20:01.9) and senior Kaela Schweisthal (101st, 20:58.3).

La Crescent placed first as a team with 75 points.

Boys' race

Among area athletes, Lake City senior Alex Pyle came closest to earning a berth in the state meet. He placed 13th in 18:31.3. The top 10 runners qualified for state.

As a team, the Tigers came in 14th with 384 points. Sophomore Chris Breuer (75th, 20:43.7), eighth-grader Marshal Lemmer (92nd, 21:27.3), seventh-grader Sergey Duchelle (98th, 21:49.2) and freshman Jordan Hyland (108th, 22:22.3) also contributed to Lake City's team score.

Z-M/K-W did one better than the Tigers, placing 13th with 330 points. Senior Drew Lexvold (53rd, 20:13.5), sophomore Nathan Warneke (56th, 20:15.6) sophomore Derek Greseth (61st, 20:20.4), senior Keith Highet (74th, 20:41.4) and eighth-grader Ben Nystuen (86th, 21:07.2) were the team's top five runners.

Cannon Falls came in 20th out of the 20 teams that earned a team score. It had a score of 530.

The Bombers' top five consisted of sophomore Brandon Stewart (87th, 21:08.7), freshman Logan Hildebrandt (102nd, 21:56.3), sophomore Jordan Erlanson (112th, 22:33.5), junior Marek Haggerty (116th, 22:51.0) and junior Sean Serres (117th, 22:52.3).

Plainview-Elgin-Millville won with a team score of 40.

Tags: cannon falls, kaia bierman, emi trost, lake city, cross country, sports, bombers, tigers, zumbrota, mazeppa, cougars, kenyon, wanamingo