Cross country: Still running strong

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Senior Drew Paradis and freshman Jamie Piepenburg just keep getting stronger as the season rolls along.

The two Cardinal runners captured first yet again in their most recent cross country competition, this time at Little Falls last Thursday.

Paradis’ top finish helped move the Cardinal boys’ team into a first place finish with 63 points, while Piepenburg’s first place secured a seventh place team finish for the girls.

After finishing second in the first non-scoring meet of the year, Paradis has gone on to win the next three, while Piepenburg has won all four of her outings so far this season.

“Little Falls was forced to make some changes to its cross country course as they received more than an inch of rain earlier in the day,” said Cardinal coach Mark Nelsen. “They did a great job getting the course race ready.

“The change to the course did not impact the Alexandria runners adversely, as many of them had lifetime best times, with all runners beating their previous race of the season.

“This is typically a fast course with good competition,” he added. “This year was no different.”

The Cardinals had all of their seven runners finish under 18 minutes as Austin McCoy was 10th, Josh Hobbs 15th, Mitch Evink 16th, Will Seiling 21st, Zach Hodgson 23rd and Sam Vinje 31st.

“I will have to check the archives to determine when we accomplished that last,” said Nelsen of his seven runners’ sub-18:00 finishes. “We had only 1:43 separating our top five runners.”

Hobbs and Hodgson were named “Runners of the Meet” for their performances.

The Redbird girls’ team also had some confidence-boosting performances as Piepenburg ran her fastest 4K of her career, and one of the fastest times ever for an Alexandria girl.

“Tess Boucher is racing with more confidence and continues to get stronger, as she had her fastest time of the season,” said Nelsen.

Boucher’s eighth place finish was followed by Chelsey Richardson in 25th, Randee O’Brien in 68th, Maxine Carlson in 84th, Kaci McCoy in 85th and Alexa Goetsch in 87th.

Piepenburg and McCoy received “Runners of the Meet” honors for their finishes.

The Cardinals’ next competition is tomorrow, Thursday, at Rocori.

LITTLE FALLS INVITATIONAL

CROSS COUNTRY MEET

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11

BOYS’ TEAM SCORES – 1. Alexandria 63, 2. Perham 101, 3. Hopkins 134, 4. Brainerd 136, 5. Grand Rapids 148, 6. Bemidji 150, 7. Staples-Motley 159, 8. Little Falls 214, 9. St. Cloud Tech 218, 10. Detroit Lakes 235, 11. St. Cloud Cathedral 244, 12. Fergus Falls 277, 13. St. Cloud Apollo 393, 14. Rocori 412, 15. Sauk Rapids-Rice 429.

INDIVIDUAL CHAMPION – Drew Paradis, Alexandria, 15:52.

ALEXANDRIA RESULTS – 1. Paradis, 10. Austin McCoy 17:06, 15. Josh Hobbs 17:22, 16. Mitch Evink 17:23, 21. Will Seiling 17:35, 23. Zach Hogdson 17:39, 7. Sam Vinje 17:51.

GIRLS’ SCORES – 1. Hopkins 94, 2. Staples-Motley 110, 3. Grand Rapids 120, 4. Perham 121, 5. Brainerd 123, 6. Forest Lake 125, 7. Alexandria 186, 8. Little Falls 199, 9. Rocori 213, 10. Fergus Falls 225, 11. St. Cloud Apollo 268, 12. Bemidji 286, 13. St. Cloud Tech 329.

INDIVIDUAL CHAMPION – Jamie Piepenburg, Alexandria, 14:32.

ALEXANDRIA RESULTS – 1. Piepenburg, 8. Tess Boucher 15:28, 25. Chelsey Richardson 16:11, 68. Randee O’Brien 18:31, 84. Maxine Carlson 20:03, 85. Kaci McCoy 20:03, 87. Alexa Goetsch 20:10.

RACING TO

THE TOP

Paradis has won three straight meets, leading the Cardinals to first in two of those meets

Piepenburg has won every meet this season

The Card boys had all seven varsity runners under 18 minutes at Little Falls

PIepenburg had the fastest race of her career Thursday

Tags: sports, alexandria, cardinals, cross, country, little, falls