Menahga Public School

1 hour ago

UNC Park Region Conference Meet Results
Tuesday, October 20th
@ Long Prairie Country Club

Words from Coach Ed Heltunen

"On a beautiful Tuesday afternoon, your UNC Warrior cross country teams traveled to Long Prairie for the Park Region Conference meet. This meet featured the 12 teams in our conference. There were 3 races in total; Jr High boys and girls ran together and then the varsity/JV girls raced and closed with the varsity/JV boys. To say we had a great day yesterday might be an understatement. Our junior high boys started the meet placing 3 in the top 10 earning junior high all conference and one girl also earning all-conference placing 5th. The junior high boys earned the Jr. high team title as well. Then the JV/Varsity girls stepped on the course and earned the right to call themselves 4 peat Conference Champions. For 4 years in a row, these girls have done the hard work necessary and have been fortunate enough to come home with the title. It takes many different factors to win a title. Hard work, staying healthy, having no one sick on race day, and depth. We have been fortunate to have all 4 these last several years. This year, we would have won the title if our 7th runner was our 5th runner across which speaks to the depth we have again this year. Our boys Varsity team had their best meet of the season as well. Even with one member a little banged up and one at FFA nationals, they ran hard and were able to come home 3rd, 5 spots out of 2nd! This is our highest conference finish in quite some time. No one in the conference was going to beat the Wadena boys team this year so the battle was for 2nd place and our boys nearly captured it. It has been a blast watching these boys grow all season and get better each and every meet. One goal in the beginning of the season was to be in the top 3 and they succeeded in this venture. Hard work pays off. Results from the meet below.

Jr. High Girls Race - 2800 meters

Clara Komppa All-Conference taking 5th in 13:42
Mari Ness took 14th in 17:08
Whisper Ehrmantraut took 15th in 20:53

Jr. High Boys Race - 2800 meters
Conference Champions

Aiden Hendrickson All-Conference taking 5th in 11:59
Jack Skoog All-Conference taking 6th in 12:04
Shad Anderson All-Conference taking 7th in 12:07
Chase Josephson 20th place in 13:39
Brooks Kilpela 21st in 13:40
Jaiden Rippentrop 34th in 21:20

JV Girls 5000 meters

Sadie Schoon All-Conference taking 9th place in 29:02
Kaia Westberg 11th place in 30:49

Varsity Girls 5000 meters
Back to Back to Back to Back Conference Champions

Anaya Aho All-Conference taking 3rd in 19:37
Eva Lehto All-Conference taking 7th in a SB of 20:43
Avyana Isaacson All-Conference taking 13th in 21:21
Erika Keranen All-Conference honorable mention taking 16th in 21:30
Maelle Haverinen rounding out our scoring 5 taking 23rd in a SB time of 22:39
Brynn Hendrickson took 28th in a PR of 23:05
Avery Oyster took 31st in 23:24

Varsity Boys 5000 meters
3rd Place

Gavin Schreiber All-Conference taking 12th in a SB time of 18:54
Kale Anderson All-Conference taking 15th in a PR of 19:03
Nolan Heltunen took 23rd in a PR of 19:42
Rohan Kuschel took 26th in 20:01
Draden Kako took 49th in a PR of 22:23
Waylon Thompson took 58th in 24:33

It is fun to see when the hard work starts to manifest itself into the goals the kids set in the beginning of the year. The girls wanted to win the title and the boys wanted to get in the top 3. Both were accomplished yesterday. Individual goals kids have to break certain time barriers(19 minutes, 22 minutes, etc) happened as well yesterday. The kids have bought in all year to what it takes to be their best on the big meets of the year and they were able to see the results again yesterday and that is what makes us coaches the most proud. Even if an individual kid did not have their best day, they did what they could to help the team have an outstanding day. Performers of the conference meet were; Avyana Isaacson for the girls.. She has been battling and not at 100% health right now but still went out and ran phenomenally to help the girls win the title.. Gavin Schreiber for the boys.. He had to work hard after a mid-season lull to earn one of his pre-season goals of being an all-conference runner and he completed it while breaking 19 for the first time this season.

This was the end of the line for our Jr. High teams and we couldn’t be more proud of all the hard work they did this season that ended up with 1 all-conference runner for the girls and 3 for the boys along with a conference title. The future is bright for our teams with the group we have coming up 5-8!!!

Up next is our section meet next Friday in Bagley. For the boys, it is going to be about trying to get in the top 5 and that will take an outstanding day for each of the runners. For the girls, it will take everything they have and a few things to go our way in order for them to earn the right to go back to state for the 4th year in a row. We have two teams in the top 12 in the state in Barnesville (ranked 4th) and Riverside Christian (ranked 12th) and they are deep fast teams. Hawley is also very strong again this year so it will take our best race of the season to advance as a team but that is the way it should be. Got to go earn it. Onto Sections!!!

Go Warriors, Trojans, and Braves!!"

-Coach Ed Heltunen
Photo Credit: Jason Aho📸
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CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!!!🙌🙌🙌 ... See MoreSee Less

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