The boys and girls team fought off the emotional let down of coming from the HUGE Milaca meet to the smaller, but very competitive EGF Inv.  I could tell that our team was just a little emotionally flat coming off last week.

The teams did get a double double win though.  They won each individual Varsity race, and each Varsity team race. 

The girls started out the overcast, windy day, by Karly taking the lead at the 800m mark and never giving it up.  She won in 15:36, the other top five girls were Rachel C in 6th, followed closely by Grace 7th, Alexis in 11th, and Rachel T in 15th.  We had all of our girls run varsity to allow everyone to have a fair chance on the same day to post times to help sort out who will run at the state meet for us.  We had several girls make bids that they should be considered members of the state meet team.  Also we had three girls PR, Brenna, Lexi, and Courtney!

Camron and Leif took the immediate lead in the boys varsity 5k and never gave it up.  Camron won in 15:46, followed by Leif in 15:58.  David and Keelan continued to fill their normal varsity top 5 spots by placing 7th and 10th overall.  Cody and Ian both battled the whole race, knowing they needed to step up and fill the last scoring position, while the boys team is battling some Illnesses and are missing three of past top 5 runners.  Cody out sprinted Ian over the last few meters to finish one second ahead in 15th place and earn him his first top 5 team finish!! So congrats to Cody and Ian for their great efforts.  Two boys, Ryan and Gus turned in PR performances!!

I was most proud of our 7th and 8th grade boys, who stepped up and ran their first 5 K's!!  They stayed positive during the race and gave great performances.  It was great to see them start their first steps toward their future of being g

After getting on the bus at 4:45 am, then taking a nap, the Central Knights arrived at the Milaca Mega Meet, along with 5000 other cross country runners.  Once we finished setting up camp the Central runners ran in 8 different races.

10:15 am 7th grade Boys 3200m
Our seventh grade boys were the first team to toe the line and Jacob  was the first Knight to cross the finish line in 14:23 and claimed the first PR of many that Central runners would produce!  Taylor and Sebastian also had strong races.

10:30 am 8th grade Girls 3200m
The 8th grade girls were our first complete team, and ran to an impressive 6th place finish out of 14 teams. The top 6 finishers for the Knights all ran PRs!!  Brenna lead the way with a huge PR, followed by Aislinn, Maia, Natalie, Tyanna, and Alexia.  Emily and Miranda also ran strong races but came seconds short of PRing.

11:00 am 9th grade Girls 4K
All five 9th grade girls ran PR's! I couldn't ask anything more out of a girls group, I was very happy and proud of them for competing so hard.  McKenzie lead the way with a new PR of 18:02, followed closely by Heather, 18:08.  Emily returned from an injury to earn a PR of 18:57.  Sophie, who loves to sing on the bus, PRed with 19:21, and Courtney continues to improve every race ran her best time of the year in 21:33.

11:15 am 9th grade Boys 5K
The freshman team was lead by Richie, who ran a PR of 19:13, followed by 8th grader Rex, and Cedric (PR of 21:19).  First time racer Eryx picked a huge race to start with but ran well being the 4th freshman for the Knights, and Zach finished with a PR to round out the top 5.  

12:30 pm Varsity AAA Girls 4K
The girls team lined up with 20 teams, several of them the top ranked teams in Minnesota.  The girls had a goal of placing in the top 3 to earn one of the coveted Milaca team trophies.  The girls ran their best race of the season with all 7 girls running new PR's.  Karly set the pace, by placing 4th overall and tied the School Record at 14:52.  She shares the record with Jessica Lindsay, who is currently running for the University of North Dakota.  The Roehl sisters were the next Central girls across the line, with older sister Grace placing 27th in a time of 15:57, followed by Alexis, 28th, in 15:58.  Rachel C was 37th in 16:09, followed by Rachel T in 16:20, and Mandy cruising home in 17:00.  The girls average time of 15:51 is the fastest average time for the Knights since the 2003 team (15:36) which were the EDC champions and placed 2nd at state.

1:15 pm Varsity AAA Boys 5k
The boys went to the starting line with 18 other top teams from the region without 2 of their top 5 runners, but the other teammates stepped up and filled the spots with a great effort!  Camron continued his great senior season with a PR of 16:06 and placed 4th overall.  Leif continued to show why he is one of the best sophomores in the state by finishing 10th (race had 140 runners) over all with a PR of 16:38.  Keelan, David, and Alex rounded out the top 5 to help the Knights finish 6th overall.  Senior Cody was the sixth runner with a PR. Senior Ian fell during the first mile of the race, dislocated his shoulder, but continued running, showing the heart that all of our team contains. 

2:00 pm JV Girls 4k
The JV girls race had six Central girls mixed in with 470 other runners.  Maggie continued her mid season surge with another PR of 17:39 to lead the JV girls home.  Lexi was the Knights second runner, followed by Madison, Shanlee (New PR of 19:14) and Farruzah (New PR of 21:00)

2:15 pm JV Boys 5K
Six Central boys approached the starting line of the JV boys race along with 582 other runners!!  Jr. Shay, running at his first Milaca meet, made the most of the large number of runners to help propel himself to a PR of 19:54.  The rest of the JV boys, Gus, Daniel, Darian, Ryan, and Chris ran very competitive races.

Saturday, Sept 14th, Central and Red River lined up on our newly designed cross country course for a duel meet.  The new design of the course has 700 meter straightaway for a start.  This will allow a fair start for the 2013 EDC Meet and the 2015 State Meet which we will be hosting. The course is a series of big loops which makes it a great spectator course.  Easy for even the non-runners to get everywhere and see the races!

The middle school were the first runners out on the 3K course, Red River won the middle school division but Tyanna, Emily, Jacob, Taylor, Clayton, and Sebastian all posted new PR's, showing the older teams that the course was fast.  

The Central boys and girls team had a team goal of starting out a little slower than usually for the first mile, but then really working on their second mile and trying to run it faster than they normally do. We also ran in training shoes to keep our legs fresh.  

The our top 5 girls took the lead immediately and lead for the first mile together running in a great pack.  Karly pulled away to win in 16:00, but 7th Grader Alexis closed the gap to finish in 16:05, quickly followed by Grace 16:09, Rachel C 16:16.  Rachel, a.k.a Rat had a huge PR, ran 16:33, and finished 7th to give the girls a 17 to 40 win over Red River.  Seventh Grader Mandy continued the PR's for the girls, followed by Maggie, Alexis L, Emily, Shanlee, Madison, Olivia, and Farruzah all earning their own PR's.  The highlight of the meet for the girls is that they are closing the gap time from their top runner to their 6th runner, it is now down to 1:30 minutes, where earlier in the year it was 3:30 mins.  

Camron and Leif took the lead in the boys race, going through the first mile in a very relaxed 5:25 and 5:26, but then did exactly what was the race plan and ran negative splits (faster mile splits than 1st mile) for BOTH their second and third miles. Vlod, all conference runner for Red River broke up the boys desire for a perfect score by placing 3rd.  Ben, Keelan, and David finished just behind him to give the boys a winning score of 18 to 40 over Red River.  Several boys ran to PR's over the 5K course, Shay, Ryan, Darian, Gus, Daniel, Cedric and Chris G. all set new standards.  

With our third straight meet of hot weather couldn't slow down the Knights when we travelled to Bemidji, MN.  The temperatures were in the high 80's, no wind, and super muggy  as the JV girls were the first Central team to line up on the rolling course in Bemidji.  Maggie Powell, Brenna Bertsch, and Heather Barth immidiately took the lead and worked together for the rest of the race.  Maggie raced to her first win, followed by Heather in second and Brenna in fourth.  Lexi Lunski, 9th, and Farruzah Hutchinson 14th helped the JV girls capture the win. 

The varsity girls were the next team to race to a victory.  Karly Ackley finished second, followed by 7th grader Alexis Roehl, running in her first varsity race, who finished in 3rd over all.  Rachel Cox, 4th, and Grace Roehl , 6th,  finished seconds behind.  Rachel Torrey, 11th, lead another first time varsity runner 7th grader Mandy Williamson, 12th, cross the line to help the girls place 6 girls in the top 12.  It was a season low 25 points for the varsity girls.

The junior high races were next, their races were highlighted by the younger runners providing everyone with some great finish line battles.  One of the team goals for the meet was to keep racing all the way, and the younger runners showed the rest of the team how that is supposed to be done!!

The JV boys used a late charge over the last 1000 meters to win their division.  Cody Rowley, 2nd, and Richie Osborn, 3rd, lead the boys in a hard fought battle over Red River for the win.  Thomas Devine, 6th,  Rex Stancliff, 8th, and Shay Doward, 10th, rounded out the scoring for the JV boys.

The Varsity boys were the last race of the day and gave a great show.  Camron Roehl  ran to win in 15:36 which when corrected for the short course (4875 meters) to a new PR for him to 16:06.  The PR's continued as Leif Larsen finished 2nd, Ben Wood 4th, David Hettich 7th, Keelan Murphy 8th, Alex Dianat 12th, and Ian Kelly 14th.

It was a great day of running for the Central Knights and gets us ready for our Duel next week against Red River at our newly designed Cross Country course at Lincoln Drive Park.