Finnerty 4th at Foot Locker Midwest Regional

For most high school runners in Minnesota, the cross country season ended three weeks ago at the State meet, if not before.

For Burnsville's Rob Finnerty, this is far from true. Finnerty took fourth (15:11) this morning at the Foot Locker Midwest Regional in Kenosha, Wisconsin in a loaded field consisting of the best high school runners from Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

His top-10 finish qualifies him for the National Championships on December 8th at Balboa Park in San Diego, California. Finnerty finished 11th in the Midwest race as a freshman, missing nationals by one spot, and made the top 10 for the first time in his career today.

Michael Fout of Indiana won the race in 14:54, followed by Illinois' Chris Derrick (15:01).

Full boys results are HERE.

Last year, Minneapolis South's now-Gopher-All-American Hassan Mead won the race with Winona's Elliot Heath (now of Stanford) taking third. Mead went on to finish 4th at Nationals, the best Minnesota finish in the meet's history.

In the girls race, Ohio's Claire Durkin set a course record with her 17:01 performance, but no Minnesotans finished in the top 10. Laura Hughes of Mankato West was the top Minnesota girls finisher, in 45th clocking 19:06.

Full girls results are HERE.