St. Michael-Albertville Cross Country Teams Strike Silver at Home

Led by some outstanding individual performances and some solid pack running in the back, the St. Michael-Albertville Knights proved they belong with one of Class AA's best Thursday on their home course.

The Knights finished behind perennial power Apple Valley in both the boys' and girls' varisty races. The Knights fell short with 56 points on the girls' side (AVHS had 54) and 68 on the boys' side (66 for the Eagles).

St. Michael's girls were led by junior Maddie Sjelin (15:38) and Presley Norby (15:44), who wound up fourth and fifth in the 4K race, respectively. Sjelin stayed just behind the frontrunners much of the race and finished comfortably in fourth, while Norby moved up with a strong final kick to pass a couple of runners down the stretch and finish behind her teammate.

Other scoring runners included Erin Autio, a sophomore, who finished just out of the top 10 in 11th (16:22), senior Katelyn Blais who pulled in 17th (16:45), and Beth Hinkemeyer, who finished 19th (16:46).

Other runners were Tori Hamre, a junior, who came in 24th, while Rylee Hanson, another junior, was 37th overall.

On the boys' side, Brendan Sage ran a very solid 5K, finishing second with a time of 17:06, about two seconds behind the winner from Maple Grove. Sophomore Alex Aman also finished in the top 10 with a time of 17:57.

Other scoring runners were freshman Chase Cayo (18:06) and senior Kevin Hackenmueller (18:08), who finished 15th and 16th, respectively. Derek Johanson was about 10 runners behind in 25th (18:41).

Nonscoring runners were Alex Birk in 26th, Dominc Shovelain in 31st and Alex Johnson in 32nd, joined by Austin Stepp in 34th. Michael Bruner, a senior, had a time of 19:34 and finished 50th.