Two Owatonna Runners Dash to State Cross Country Meet
A pair of Owatonna High School runners qualified for the state cross country meet with their finishes at the Section 1AA meet at Brooktree Golf Course October 24. Eighth-grader Carsyn Brady came in eighth place in the girls race and junior Preston Meier took 11th in the boys event.
The state meet is Saturday, November 2 at St. Olaf College in Northfield. The Class AA girls run at 10 am. Class AA boys compete at 11 am. Class A girls run at 1 pm and Class A boys at 2 pm. Awards are held after each race. There is no admission charge and parking is free, but can be challenging to find.
Huskies girls coach Dan Leer said, "For such a young person, she's quite the competitor. She runs with a lot of conviction. She's extremely consistent. She doesn't really get too far up or too far down. She runs within herself. She's just a really steady performer."
As a team, Owatonna had a nice third place in the section meet, exceeding Leer's expectation. The top two teams advance to the state team competition. The Huskies also took third at the Big Nine Conference meet.
OHS boys coach Dave Chatelaine commented on Saturday's KRFO High School Coaches Show, "Preston Meier ran a fantastic race. His goal all season was to qualify for state as an individual. He worked hard all summer and all season. His goal came true. We're really excited to have an individual back at state. It's been a couple of years since Brayden Kubat ran there."
Chatelaine said Meier is a smart runner, "He knows how to pace himself. He knows how to really push himself. He had to push pretty hard at sections on Thursday. He should be able to do that again at state."
Chatelaine said the overall sixth place finish at section was pretty good, especially considering Owatonna was missing one of its regular varsity runners. OHS did not have any seniors on their section varsity team.
Owatonna's runners have run on the St. Olaf course this season.