Hanke takes 1st, Albert Lea Boys take 2nd at home Cross Country Meet

Here are the results from the home cross country meet held at Bancroft Bay Park.

Star runner boys-Gavin Hanke

Star runner girls-Jai Maligaya

Team boys 2/6

Team girls incomplete

Comments for Co Head Coach Jim Haney-The coaching staff is extremely proud of the efforts of the boys and girls cross country teams.  It was special to run at home in a real cross country meet for the 1st time in 20 years.  The runners performed well and fed off the energy from the home crowd.  The boys were 2nd out of 6 teams.  The thing that the coaching staff is happy about is the face in 5 days the Rochester Mayo Meet and out home meet we have defeated all the schools in our section with the exception of Cannon Falls ( a team we have not faced yet)  The coaching staff and runners know that defeating the teams in our section is important but we still have personal and team goals we need to work on.  This includes decreasing time and moving the boys up in the standings.  Leading the way was Gavin Hanke in 1st place overall.  Gavin had an outstanding race.  He was challenged by a runner from Rochester John Marshall and he responded to maintain 1st place in the race.  2nd on the team was Isaiah McGaffey in 10th place, Isaiah has been running very well over the last 2 meets and he continues to make the improvement we need to do well in the section.  The rest of the top 5 for Albert Lea were Pacey Brekke in 13th place, Patrick Holcomb in 21st place and  Blak Christstenson in 26th place.  All the boys that scored were outstanding today, the coaching staff will continue to ask for more and more from the boys and we know that they are up to the challenge.

Girls-The 3 girls that ran for Albert Lea showed tremendous grit and determination.  Jai Maligaya led the tigers in 9th place.  Jai battled today and the coaching staff liked how she responded to the runners who challenged her, she did not back down and continued to push the pace.  Jai was followed by Mya Hanke in 21st place, this one of the strongest races that Mya has had.  The coaching staff is very proud of her and the effort she put in.  Alyiah Studier came in 25th place.  Aliyah pushed the pace and held off a number of competitors during the race.  The coaching staff is proud that we were able to show off cross country in Albert Lea.

Our next meet will be Saturday in Winona, we are ready and look forward to showing what we can do against a number of teams from eastern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin.