Posted: 9/18/02

Boys CC places third at invite

Berk Brown
Sports Editor

There were plenty of reasons for those associated with the Forest Lake boys cross country team to be excited following the St. Francis Invitational.

Besides getting a third-place finish from its varsity team and several improved performances, Forest Lake also took first place in the junior varsity and junior high races on Thursday, Sept. 12.

ìThat was a very cool thing to see for the program,î Forest Lake coach Cam Stottler said.
In finishing third behind North St. Paul and Elk River in the team standings, Forest Lake got several season-best races from team members.

Chad Bjorklund led the Rangers with a 13th-place finish in 17:48. John Fahnhorst placed 18th for the Rangers in 18:05 and Peter Bailey was 20th, also in 18:05.

Ted Dehmlow and Nate Berg each finished in 18:28 to place 30th and 31st, respectively.
ìWe were looking for them to make a decent-sized jump and they did that,î Stottler said of his varsity runners at St. Francis. ìChad got down where he wanted to be and Peter and John got down and Ted and Nate did a great job running together.

ìTheyíre pretty excited about where theyíre at right now.î

Sean Hogan placed 47th for the Rangers in 19:00 and Ben Fick was 55th in 19:10.

In the junior varsity portion of the meet, Forest Lakeís Lorin Skoglund took first in 19:01 while Aaron Moen was sixth in 19:21, Kelly Weise was seventh in 19:32 and Jordan Koch was eighth in 19:33.

Considering the top four junior varsity runners put up times close to some members of the varsity, Stottler said he may have some tough decisions to make. Especially since senior co-captain Chris Clark didnít even race at St. Francis because of an injury.

ìIt makes me have to make some decisions which I donít usually have to,î Stottler said. ìBut, Iíll take it. Itís very much a positive.î

In the junior high race, Forest Lake won the team title behind a second-place finish from Zach Clark and a fourth-place finish from Shawn Wright.

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