atoms

“It is the biggest meet in world!” That’s what you hear all the time at the Milaca Mega Meet. It may be the biggest meet in the world, but it’s not the only meet to keep your eyes on this year. There are a couple races on the calendar where we could see break-out races. Whether it’s Milaca, Griak, Swain, or the State Meet, there will be plenty of fast times and great races ran at these meets.       The first major race to watch this year would be the Milaca Mega Meet.  This race will be held on September 20. It is considered the biggest race in the world. For varsity races it is divided into four separate divisions. The smallest schools run in the Class A race, and as the schools keep getting bigger they go up to AA, then AAA and finally AAAA. There are many great teams and individuals to watch out for at this meet. A couple of teams to watch out for in the two smaller races would be Holdingford, Mora, Jordan, St. Cloud Cathedral, Glencoe-Silver Lake, Perham, Martin County West, and West Central Area. Most of these are in the AA race, which will make for a great competitive race sense all of these, besides one, are ranked in the top 10 in single A. Some Individuals to watch in the two smaller races would be Billy Beasmen from Perham, Andrew Zachman from Holdingford, Isaac Overmeyer from Park Rapids, and Jonah Mayo from Martin County West. These teams and runners have been looking good and on a flat course like Milaca, they’re guaranteed to run fast.     Now looking at the two bigger races on the day. The teams to watch, that will be competing are White Bear Lake, Bemidji, Robbinsdale Armstrong, and Chaska. Unfortunately, Chaska will be running without their star runner Joey Duerr. Some other individual runners to look for in this race are Alec Anderson from Chaska, and Nick Wareham from Woodbury. Milaca will be a great meet to go to this year. There are many rated individuals and teams that will make for a good, competitive race (Milaca Mega meet Press Release).     The next meet is the Roy Griak Invitational on September 27th. This is a race that has both college races and high school. College races are usually ran in the morning and high school in the afternoon. For high school boys there’s a Gold and Maroon race. The Gold race is for the bigger and faster teams, Where the Maroon race is for the smaller schools. This meet usually has a lot of great competition. In the gold race, will have Wayzata, Stillwater, Hopkins, Perham, and Edina as the teams to watch run good. A hilly course like this makes for the experienced teams to excel. Some of the top individuals to keep your eyes on would be Shane Streich, from Waseca, Connor Olson, from Wayzata, Ephraim Bird, from Minnehaha Academy, and Micah Mather, from St. Paul Highland Park.      For the Maroon race, look for Lakeville North, Mounds View, Rogers, and Winona to be near the top of the team standings. In the individual part of the race look for Mike Destache, from St. Paul Academy Summit, Collin Kiley, from Roseville, and Hunter Bailey, from Winona. This course has lots of hills that make it hard for the runners that start out to fast. The even paced runners are usually the ones that succeed at a meet like this (University of Minnesota Official Athletic Site).    The final major meet to keep your eyes on would be the Minnesota State Cross Country Meet. This is where the best of the best compete for the highest honors in the state. This year Class A runs in the morning and Class AA runs in the afternoon. It will be held on Saturday, November 1st, this year. In the Class A race anything can happen. Shane Streich, from Waseca hasn’t been touched by anybody all year and is the clear cut favorite to win. If there was anyone else for him to watch out for it would be Isaac Overmyer, from Park Rapids, and Ephraim Bird, from Minnehaha Academy. Otherwise Shane Striech should have a fairly easy win at the state meet. On the team side of Class A watch for Perham to have another great year. Probably not winning this year, but top a top three team. Waseca will be right up there too. Mora, Holdingford, and St. Cloud Cathedral will all be top ten teams. Look for Martin County West to win the team title. They have a strong consistent team this year. They won’t have to worry about any class A teams beating them this year. If they did though, the only one that would have a chance would be Glencoe-Silver Lake. Overall, the Class A meet will be down from last year, but it will still be a very intense race to watch.     On the double AA side of things, look for a competitive race, where there is no clear cut winner for the individual title. On the team side, it should be a blow out with Wayzata putting three of their guys in the top 10 to take the state title. Stillwater, Edina and Hopkins will all be fighting for that runner up spot. The individual part of the race will be a bit tricky. This course is a flat course, that is well suited for all runners. The state title will be a battle fought to the death between Connor Olson, From Wayzata, and Joe Klecker, From Hopkins. If Eli Krahn, from Stillwater, is healthy, look for him to be in the mix also. Other runners that will be in the top 10 include Joey Duerr, from Chaska, Ian Eklin, from Wayzata, Nick Wareham, from Woodbury, and Jaret Carpenter, From Wayzata. Any of these guys could pull off the upset if they have a great day, but they would have to run their best race of the season and life. This will be the meet to watch if you want to see all of the best runners across Minnesota compete against each other and find out who is the best of the best (MSHSL State Cross Country Championships).     There are quite a few important meets to go to this year. You won’t always hear people say, this is the biggest meet in the world! But that doesn’t mean you won’t find just as many great runners at Griak and the state meet, as you see at the Milaca Mega Meet. Going to these meets will be a great experience, where you can see the best high school runners in Minnesota give it their all and run fast times. It might even motivate you to try running yourself. Even though running as fast as some of the runners in these races is out of the question, you might be able to start running and achieve your own self goals.