Emi Trost and Annandale Make the Leap to the Top of the Podium

Emi Trost(511) has company early in the race from runner-up
Mary Naas of St. Paul Academy
Photo by Gene Niemi

Cannon Falls' Emi Trost and the Annandale Cardinals team followed identical paths to the top of the podium this year. Both moved up one place in the Class A Girl's Championships.  Both Trost, a senior, and Annadale had been runner-up two year's in a row before this year's race.

When Trost was announced as the champion during the post-race medal presentation ceremonies, the entire audience rose to give her a standing ovation.  Unlike the Class AA crowd, teams, and athletes, which was sedate by comparison, the Class A crowd was very involved in the presentation.  When the St. Cloud Cathedral team entered the auditorium, for example, the large contingent of SCC supporters in the bleachers greeted them with  raucous cheers.

On the other side of the gym, an equally large contingent of Perham supporters provided the same acknowledgement during the medal presentations for the bronze medal winning Perham girl's team and the gold medal winning boys.  Both the boys and girls individual champions and the team champions received "standing O's."  The teams had the added honor of a virtual "tunnel of honor" formed by the top three teams, both boys and girls, who lined up across from one another and raised their arms then joined hands to form a steeple for the tunnel where each team entered prior to going on stage to get their trophy and walked back through after accepting their awards.

The Annandale girls added to the pagentry by  each wearing a tie dyed T-shirt with the message stenciled on the shirts in single letters, one letter per runner's shirt, that read: "Run to Live."

Trost, as do many athletes, uses a spiritual message as part of her motivation to perform and to give thanks for her gifts.  "I run the race to give glory to God," she says.  She uses a song, Well done by Moriah Peters, to help her through the run with a line that she repeats: "I want to run this race to hear you say 'Well Done.'"

Trost has run the St. Olaf course for five years, having competed in the MSHSL championships first as an eighth grader.  She says she knows the course so well that she was pointing out the many memories she had of those past runs to her brother when they were running on the course in preparation for this year's race.

This being her final cross country race as a high schooler, Trost said the experience was "bittersweet."  Sad because it is the last one, and sweet because she finally won.  But she balances that out with the observation:  "Ultimately ten years from now nobody will ever remember who won.  It's just a race. The real memories (we'll have) is being here with the people."


Girl's Class A results are HERE.