Posted: 9/8/04

Rangers place 5th at St. Cloud Apollo race

Joe Drennan
Sports Editor

Forest Lake High School boys cross country coach Bill McElrath said this season would be a success if the runners trained hard over the summer. If the results from the season opening St. Cloud Apollo race are any indication of how hard the boys worked, this season should be full of pleasant surprises.

The Rangers fifth place finish out of 13 teams was better than last yearís seventh place finish. Matt Mach, a transfer student from Des Moines, IA, was the top Rangers finisher. Mach placed ninth out of 91 runners with a time of 17:25.

ìThat is a very good time for this time of year,î McElrath said.

Behind Mach, Kelly Weise finished with a personal record time of 10:07.

ìThatís very encouraging for Kelly to run a personal record in the first meet of the year,î McElrath said.

Rounding out the top five runners were Zach Clark, Ben Fick and Aaron Moen.

With Mach and Weiseís times so fast in the opening race, the key for the rest of the season will be to close the gap between that fastest time and the fifth racer to cross the finish line. The smaller the gap between the first across the finish line and the fifth, the lower the team points will be.

ìOur challenge now is to get our fourth and fifth runners times down,î McElrath said. ìMachís time is going to drop and we need those fourth and fifth runners close behind.î

The hard work the runners put in over the summer and the mileage they continue to add will help them close the gap as the season goes on.

Willmar won the race with 42 points. Andover finished second with 68 points, Wayzata third with 73 points, and Sartell fourth with 142 points.

In the junior high race sophomore Ben Brodien finished sixth out of 175 runners in the mile and a half race.
ìHeíll (Brodien) be coming up to varsity but we wanted to get Forest Lake on the map and get up on the medals stand,î McElrath said.

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