By Brayden Dirks
The MMCRU cross country team traveled to Alta last Monday for the Alta-Aurelia invitational meet. At this meet, the boys team placed second, just four points behind the winners from the Sioux Central squad. Kaden Galles led the way with a first place finish in a time of 17:42. Brett Staab came next with a time of 19:08, and a ninth place finish. Brayden Dirks finished in 13th with a time of 19:30. Gunnar Grage finished 34th with a time of 21:13, and Lucas Braun finished a spot behind him in 21:14. The Royals also had two junior varsity boys running, which were Max Pepper and Mason Peters. Peters finished 11th in JV with a time of 24:42, and Pepper finished 13th with a time of 24:45. The Royals also had two JV girls runners in Alyson Ball and Natalie Plagman. Alyson placed 14th in a time of 28:01 and Natalie Plagman finished 27th with a time of 33:23. The varsity came away with three medals, Pepper and Peters both received a medal in JV, and Alyson Ball received a medal in JV girls.
Coach Lisa Spieler was thrilled by the results of the meet and expressed her excitement, “What a great night! Not everyone felt great physically going into this meet but they all gutted it out and performed really well in great weather conditions. The 2nd place finish for our varsity boys was the highest finish in my coaching career and we only missed 1st place by 4 points. Kaden Galles led the way with a 1st place finish and a PR. We brought home 6 high school and 4 junior high medals. Our junior high boys were led by Wyatt Alesch who also placed 1st. The junior high boys team finished 1st for the second time this year.”
One meet for the Royals wasn’t enough, as they also had a meet on Thursday of last week. The Royals traveled to Paullina for the South O’Brien invitational meet against the usual opponents but also some new ones. Those new opponent teams included Estherville-Lincoln Central, Sheldon, and Gehlen Catholic. The boys team placed 4th overall in varsity, finishing with 99 points. Kaden Galles led the way once again with a third place finish in 17:52, and senior Brett Staab got tenth place in 19:11. Brayden Dirks rounded out the medalists in 15th with a time of 19:36. Lucas Braun was the fourth finisher on the team and he finished in 36th place with a time of 20:56. Gunnar Grage finished three spots behind him in 21:15. The boys team also had two JV runners, Max Pepper and Mason Peters. Pepper, who received a JV medal, finished 10th in a time of 23:08 and Peters finished 12th in a time of 23:19. The girls team had three JV runners. Audrey Etter placed 8th with a time of 26:24, and Alyson Ball placed 17th with a time of 27:45. Natalie Plagman finished with a time of 27th in 30:46.
Coach Lisa Spieler was very happy with the results of the meet, “We had rainy conditions at our meet in Paullina but we still ran some season bests and had 5 medalists between JV and varsity. That’s a good night. I’m especially pleased with Lucas Braun, Audrey Etter, Max Pepper, Mason Peters and Natalie Plagman who all ran a season best at Paullina. As we get into the last half of the season, and we run two meets a week instead of one, the amount of training all my runners have been doing will really start to show. We are just over 2 weeks away from State Qualifying, so seeing all their hard work pay off is very encouraging.” The Royals Cross Country teams will head to Kingsley on Tuesday, October 5, and to Hawarden on Thursday, October 7th. Please come out and support the Royals this week!