Card girls' cross country: State's on the slate for Alexandria
The Cardinal girls were runners-up in the Section 8AA meet to earn a team trip to stateBy: Lori Mork, Alexandria Echo Press
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For the first time since 1999, the Cardinal girls’ cross country team will be heading for the state meet in Northfield.
Alexandria earned a runner-up team finish at the Section 8AA cross country meet in Cold Spring Thursday, earning them the berth.
“The Alexandria girls’ runners were very focused and determined, and put forth a great team effort,” said Card head coach Mark Nelsen. “They posted six of seven season best races and scored 85 points.
“It was too close to call as the runners crossed the finish line. Everyone had to wait for the official results to be posted.
“Their [Cardinals] score did place them second to an excellent Monticello team that is ranked No. 1 in the state,” Nelsen said. “They edged a very good Moorhead team that had defeated them twice earlier in the season.
“As a result, our girls’ team will advance to the state meet a week from Saturday.”
The Cardinals have quite a history at state, reaching that meet for 12 consecutive seasons from 1980 through 1991. They missed advancing in 1992, but returned again the next year for another seven-year run ending in 1999.
Jamie Piepenburg continued to remain among the elite runners in the state as she set a career fastest 4K with a 14:04.1 to finish first by nearly 20 seconds.
“Jamie had an outstanding race, leading the field,” said Nelsen. “Megan and Bethany Hasz also ran their fastest times of the season, finishing third and fourth respectively. Jamie, Megan and Bethany were all individual qualifiers to the state meet.”
The Cardinals saw Karly Betterman improve her time by 40 seconds and Kristin Egenes cut 16 seconds from her best time to give the runners 39th and 57th places respectively, helping push Alexandria to that second place finish.
Julia Sieling was 38th and Emily Thul was 60th.
SECTION 8AA CROSS COUNTRY
GIRLS’ SCORES – 1. Monticello 49, 2. Alexandria 85, 3. Moorhead 95, 4. Willmar 126, 5. Brainerd 130, 6. Bemidji 165, 7. Sartell 204, 8. Little Falls 213, 9. Fergus Falls 225, 10. Rocori 260, 11. Detroit Lakes 337, 12. Becker 355, 13. Thief River Falls 359, 14. St. Cloud Apollo 380, 15. St. Cloud Tech 405, 16. Sauk Rapids 470.
INDIVIDUAL CHAMPION – Jamie Piepenburg, Alexandria, 14:04.1.
ALEXANDRIA RESULTS – 1. Piepenburg, 3. Megan Hasz 14:25.6, 4. Bethany Hasz 14:28.4, 38. Julia Sieling 16:04.5, 39. Karly Betterman 16:06.7, 57. Kristin Egenes 16:41.0, 60. Emily Thul 16:48.5.
Follow #AlexMN @EchoPress Sports Editor Lori Mork on Twitter at @morkwriter.
Tags: alexandria sports, cross country, sports, cardinals, girls, section, state
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