Albert Lea Cross Country competes at St. Olaf with 48 other teams
Story by Coach Jim Haney (Pictured Ty Stout)
Team places
Boys 19/49 teams
Girls Inc/49 teams
Star runner Boys Gavin Hanke
Staar runner Girls Jai Maligaya
Comments-The Albert Lea Cross Country team enjoyed a successful week and are very encouraged by the results of the first racing week for the team.  We ran at the St. olaf, the state meet course against some of the top teams in the state and we are stronger by running against the top competition in the state.  On the state meet course we placed in the top half of the teams that competed.  The encouraging part of the week was that after 2 meets this week we faced 10 of the teams in our section of the boys’ side and we were able to defeat all of these teams.  All the teams in the section will continue to improve, but we will also improve with continued training.  On the boys side we have also faced all of the big 9 teams and have defeated all the schools with the exception of Mankato East, Rohester Mayo and Owatonna.
Boys-The boys were led by Gavin Hanke who ran a 17:25.  Gavin has done a great job of leading the boys.  The coaching staff has asked a great deal from him and he always responds.  9th grader Ty Stout was next for the team at 18:12, Ty had a great summer and made great improvement.  As he gains more experience he will  only get better.  The rest of the top 5 were Isaiah McGaffey, Luke Wangsness and Pacey Brekke.  All of the runners demonstrated great effort and determination to be the best they can be.  We are very excited about the coming weeks and what will happen.
Girls-The coaching staff is very proud of the girls.  All 3 girls that ran improved on their time on a difficult course.  We did not have a team score but will in the coming weeks.  Leading the way was Jai Maligaya running in 23:15.  Jai has been asked to lead the girls and she has embraced this role.  Jai was followed by Elle Schultz running in 24:18 and finally Mya Hnke running in 24:56.  The girls dropped about 30 seconds from the race on Monday.  It was a great effort and the girls will improve with more training.