Cross-Country: Wingers stellar at Minnaert Invite

With a packed field in St. Olaf last week, things became a struggle for the Red Wing cross country teams.

Getting the chance to race in a smaller field on Thursday at the Dewey Minnaert Invitational Thursday in Hastings, the Wingers rebounded well, with the boys team taking third place, and the girls finishing in eighth.

Scoring 85 team points, the Red Wing boys were led by junior Aiden Winn, who finished in fifth place with a time of 17 minutes, 3.32 seconds.

“He’s really stepping up,” Wingers head coach Josh Nelson said of Winn. “We graduated Christian Leitner, who is running at Eau Claire now, and we thought we’d struggle at that No. 1 spot. Aiden got fifth overall in a very good field today.”

The most encouraging sign for Nelson on Thursday was the performance of the Wingers’ pack. All five boys varsity runners finished in the top 25, with Marcus Warrington (17:51.81) and George Nemanich (18:05.41) taking 15th and 19th, respectively.

“We had six guys in the top 28, and our seventh guy (Ryan Schnaith) beat every other teams’ seventh guy,” Nelson said. “That may be a small, token thing to some people, but it shows how our pack is running.”

St. Paul Central took the top team honors with a score of 71, while Cretin-Derham Hall took second with 80 points. C-DH’s Kevin Docherty was the meet’s top runner, finishing with a time of 16:18.44.

Winger girls battle for 8th

In the girls’ meet, Red Wing faced a tough field, with state-ranked Eagan (4th) and East Ridge (9th) to contend with. Led by Lindsay Scribner’s 11th-place time of 15:40.94, the Wingers finished with 193 points.

“Lindsay came out and ran a great race,” Nelson said. “The girls’ field today was much deeper than the boys’ field.”

Eighth-grader Elise Leise was 27th with a time of 16:35.39, and Emily Dech ran a time of 17:39.83, good for 55th.

Led by Danielle Anderson’s first-place time of 13:48.95, Eagan took the team title with 21 points. East Ridge (40) and Eastview (106) rounded out the top three.

Red Wing is still an ailing squad, with Kelsee Anderson and Hailee Johnson still recovering from injuries. With the early-season experience for his younger runners, Nelson hopes the scores pick up once Anderson and Johnson can get into running form.

“I’m confident our girls will get up the standings a little bit,” Nelson said.

The Wingers return to action next Thursday at Rochester Mayo.

Tags: red wing, sports, cross-country, prep