St. Michael-Albertville Girls, Brendan Sage Earn Section Championship (VIDEO)

Welcome to the big time, St. Michael-Albertville High School. 

Brendan Sage pulled out a time of 16 minutes and 21 seconds to pull out a 3-second victory in the boys' Section 5AA cross country 5K race, and the St. Michael-Albertville girls dominated in the girls' 4K with two runners in the top 10 to take the 5AA team crown and earn a State AA Meet bid. 

Greg Greeno's girls team was led by junior Maddi Sjelin, a State AA track qualifier last spring, who finished fifth overall witha  time of 15 minutes, 3 seconds. Just two seconds behind, eighth-grader Presley Norby showed the Knights will be strong in future seasons with a seventh place finish of her own. 

"We know we have some strong runners on that girls side," Greeno said. "It's just a matter of staying healthy and improving as the year goes. If they can peak at the end of the year, they should be strong." 

Strong they were, with no top runner finishing out of the top 30. Sophomore Erin Autio finished wiht a time of 15:50 to claim 19th place overall, and Katie Blais, the squad's top senior, broke the 16-minute mark by one second with her 23rd place finish. 

Not far behind was basketball standout and new varsity runner Christine Thorn, who came in 29th. Tori Hamre and Beth Kinkemeyer also raced for the varsity, finishing 42nd and 63rd, respectively. 

Totino-Grace will be the second team from 5AA to head to state, finishing with 91 points, eight behind STMA. Anoka, at 114 points, was a distant third. 

On the boys' side, Sage cruised to a time of 16:21, for a 5 minute, 16 second mile. He was three seconds faster than Jonathan Keller, also a junior, of Centennial. 

Reed Parent, a sophomore from Rogers, was third. 

Chase Cayo finished in 19th for the Knights, getting him Section honors. He finished in 17 minutes, 9 seconds, and is just a freshman. 

Other top finishers for the STMA boys were Alex Aman, a senior, at 17:21, good for 28th place; junior Derek Johnson (17:32) finished in 35th, and Kevin Kackenmuelle, a senior, came in at 17:51 for 43rd place. 

Other varsity runners were freshmen Jake Monseth (44th) and Alex Birk (51st). 

The Knights finished with 126 points, 20 behind Mounds View, who earned a state nod in second place. Centennial, with 48 points, had all five runners in the top 15 and cruised to the title.