Monday, September 22, 2008

Monday Re-Cap: Boldest 1:37 in the Sport

They call Monday Night Football's half-time highlight package "the fastest three minutes in television." Think of today's post -- highlighting the weekend's action -- as the boldest one-minute and thirty-seven seconds in Minnesota running.

"Boldest" because the names are in bold type, "a minute-thirty-seven" because that's the length of the average visit to DtB!

Here goes ...

In the high school ranks, the Wayzata boys cross country team, the #1-ranked squad in both Minnesota Class AA and NXN's Heartland Region, took their show on the road and returned from Saturday's Roosevelt Heartland Classic in Iowa with a 44-106 win over fellow-travelers Edina (#3 Class AA/#4 Heartland.) Heartland #5 Shawnee Mission Northwest of Kansas was third.

Eden Prairie (#2 Class AA, #3 Heartland), Wayzata's primary rival, along with Edina, in the section, state and region, won the Apple Valley Eagle Invitational by more than 100 points on Saturday. The White Bear Lake boys and Stillwater girls won at the Milaca Mega-Meet.

In college cross country competition, Minnesota State Mankato showed why it's the #6 team in NCAA Division II, winning the St. Olaf Invitational 42-81 over D2's #16 team Minnesota- Duluth. Hosts St. Olaf, ranked #25 in D3, finished 3rd.

The Un-ranked St. Olaf women tipped D2 #24 UMD 67-73 at the meet for 2nd place. UW-La Crosse won with 53.

Still in the cross country realm, the Collegeville Track Club won the men's title at the opening race of the USATF Minnesota Cross Country Circuit -- the Fort Snelling Relays. Collegeville won thanks to Chris Erichsen's 15:17 anchor leg, the fastest 5K leg in the competition. 2008 Team Circuit champs Run N Fun finished 2nd in the men's open division. The Run N Fun women won the women's title at FSR.

On the roads, the men and women of Team USA Minnesota were in competition all across the map. Kristen Nicolini Lehmkuhle won the Cow Harbor 10K in New York in 33:53, defeating two-time Grandma's Marathon champ and Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon contender Mary Akor who was 2nd in 34:42.

Jason Lehmkuhle finished 4th in the men's race at Cow Harbor in 29:51. Teammate Antonio Vega was 5th in 30:34.

Team USA Minnesota's Carrie Tollefson finished 9th in the USA 5K Championships held in conjunction with the CVS Downtown 5K in Providence, Rhode Island. The 2004 Olympian ran 16:20 to finish two places ahead of masters star Stephanie Herbst-Lucke who ran 16:30.

Finally, Minnetonka high school alum Will Leer finished 8th at the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile in new York City. The Oregon Track Club star clocked 3:56.4 on the road course. Nick Willis of New Zealand won the event in 3:50.5.

Find complete results from all the races mentioned -- and more -- one post down in the Short-Cut.

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