Cross-Country: Lake City girls finish third at conference championships

ROCHESTER - The Lake City girls cross-country team had a Hiawatha Valley League conference title in sight with 1,200 meters left in the race Tuesday at Willow Creek Golf Course.

But down the stretch, third-ranked (1A) Rochester Lourdes and seventh-ranked (1A) La Crescent caught the Tigers and finished first and second, respectively. Lake City head coach Howard Cook said it was a good performance but the Tigers could have done more.

“They ran decent but we didn’t get what we needed to run by those two teams,” he said. “We didn’t have that fifth girl and that was the key. That was the disappointing thing.”

Lake City sophomore Lydia Taylor ran another strong race to place 11th in 16 minutes, 15 seconds. Seventh-grader Liv Kozlowski was one spot behind Taylor in 16:18.6, ninth-grader Morgan Dammann was 14th in 16:30.4 and sophomore Hannah Alitz took 19th in 16:35.8. All four runners were named All-Conference.

“We know we have four girls who will run a good race,” Cook said.

The Tigers’ girls also won the junior varsity race with all five runners finishing in the top 15 and four in the top six.

“That’s the future,” Cook said. “Those little ones, those are the ones coming.”

In the boys’ race, Lake City senior Carston Dammann finally held off Winona Cotter’ Matt Schrupp to take third place in 16:47.2 Dammann was chased down by Schrupp three different times in the past, Cook said.

“(Dammann) hates getting beat,” Cook said. “This year, he held him (off). Carston isn’t that far out of it. I’m very happy with third place.”

Eighth-grader Carl Kozlowki also made the All-Conference team for the Tigers with a 13th-place finish in 17:46.1.

“He had a day,” Cook said. “He’s legit for next week. It was the second best time of his life.”

The Lake City boys took sixth overall with 132 points. Seventh-ranked (1A) Winona Cotter took the conference championship with 42 points and Rochester Lourdes was second with 83 points.

Zumbrota-Mazeppa/Kenyon-Wanamingo placed seventh, with junior Ben Nystuen and sophomore Eric Hokanson named to the All-Conference team, coming in 18th and 19th, respectively.

The Cougars’ girls came in eighth, but seventh-grader Skyler Jacobson showed her potential by finishing fifth in 16:01.3.

The Section 1A meet will take place Oct. 25 at Northern Hills Golf Course in Rochester.

Tags: cross-country, lake city, sports, prep, zumbrota, mazeppa