Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

From the off-season through preseason, and on to the actual regular season, the Forest Lake cross country team has been churning and burning through mile after mile, and last week would be no different.

After the Rangers competed in the Milaca Mega Meet on Sept. 22, the junior varsity and junior high school runners participated in Mounds View’s Mustang Invitational on Friday, Sept. 28.

“Friday was fun,” head coach Deno Johnson said. “The kids ran really well.”

Those kids would be people like Scotty Wambold, Peter Buol, Steve Coozennoy and Rob Lillquist, who all turned in personal bests. Forest Lake’s JV would finish the afternoon in eighth place, with 216 points, led by Nick Kelley’s time of 18:32.1

Kelley (21st) was followed by Buol (31st), Coozennoy (34th), Lillquist (51st) and Wambold (75th).

The junior high runners would fare even better, ending up in second behind Wayzata.

Joe Jackson raced to a second place finish, and he had Ben Long (4th place), Eric Herbert (8th) and Andrew Wright (12th) close behind.

Nate Merrier (34th), Eric Pierson (36th) and Nate Riedemann (39th) rounded out the team.

As for the varsity, on Saturday they had to contend with another huge field on another difficult course.

“The Griak is a great race, like Milaca, to get a solid workout and learn to run from pack to pack,” Johnson said.

“The boys are pretty tired at this stage of the season, and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.”

Johnson said the challenging 5K on Les Bolstad Course at the University of Minnesota is so tough it added 30 seconds to his runners’ times. Now they need to focus on the most important portion of the season.

“October is do or die month and we’re ready to throw down,” Johnson stated.

The boys will be in Blaine on Thursday afternoon and then off to Duluth on Saturday. The Suburban East Conference meet is Thursday, Oct. 11.

Roy Griak Invitational, Gold Division — Forest Lake 21st place

53. Zach Waldoch 17:22
101. Nate Moen 17:50
133. Spencer Cossalter 18:08
181. Andy Orth 18:27
209. Dave Medina 18:42
248. Mitch Wohlk 19:07

Top of Page