News & Notes: Polls, Goucher, and a Meeting

With items piling up fast on the DtB news desk, let's make the morning post a catch-all, news-and-notes sort of thing. I'm planning an afternoon/evening post on what I think is the weekend's most intriguing contest.

(Wonder which one it will be?)

News & Notes:

-- We finally tracked down the Class AA Girls Cross Country Ratings. You can find them on RaceberryJam HERE. Lakeville North, despite losing to Prior Lake at Rosemount last Friday retains its #1 ranking. That's right! Best we can tell, the raters took into consideration what Lakeville North might have done if the Panthers had run their top JV runners in the varsity race. Down the rankings, White Bear Lake moved into the #5 spot from outside the top-12 on the pre-season list. Pre-season #5 Chaska did the same thing in the opposite direction, falling out of the top-12.

Mankato West's Laura Hughes still leads the Class AA individual rankings, followed by McKenzie Melander of Eastview and Danielle Berndt of Bloomington Kennedy.

-- There's additional Kara Goucher content still appearing on the web in the wake of her Osaka bronze. (And I don't just mean DtB's new banner featuring the former Duluth East star!) DtB contributor Sean Hartnett has produced a long video interview with Goucher that's available HERE via Track & Field News. Hartnett also posted a "slide-show" of the shots he took of the women's 10,000 meter at the World Championships, HERE. You'll recognize a few of them, I think.

Look for Goucher on the cover of the September-November issue of Minnesota Running & Track, too!

-- Speaking of USA Track & Field Minnesota (they publish MnR&T) ... The annual meeting for the organization is this Sunday (September 9) at 6;30 p.m. at the Courage Center in Golden Valley. The organization will elect officers -- President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer - for 2008. All USATF - Minnesota members are welcome to attend and eligible to vote.