“It was great way for Gabby to finish her senior season, to be our number one runner today,” said Breckenridge/Wahpeton Head Coach Larry Lasch.  “She made the right decision to switch from playing volleyball to running cross country this fall.  Gabby is very talented, smooth runner.”  

Not far behind Gabby was junior Rachel Gowin in 35th place running a 22:25.   “Rachel and Gabby complimented each other very well this season, if one girl didn’t have her best stuff, the other did,” noted Lasch.  “Today I thought they both competed quite well.  Freshman Hailee Bruce ran a very good time despite the wind and hills that challenged the runners, it was her best race of the season as she ran a 22:59 to place 57th.   Seventh grader Kiera Wiertzema stepped up to run her best of the year in time of 23:21 to place 76th.  Juniors Tayor Bommerbach ran a solid 23:56 to place 92nd and Madison Rabbithead finished in 24:24, good for 104th place.”

The BW girls’ team will only lose one senior, Gabby Baumgardner. But she will be big loss for the team as she was one of the top runners on the team.  This was Gabby’s 2nd season of cross country, and her first season of full-time cross country.   “Gabby was good leader on a young team, she pushed our top runners and pulled along the younger girls,” added Coach Lasch.  “The team was able to pull up three seventh graders to the varsity ranks this season who will mixed in well with a solid group of juniors, sophomores, and freshman.  If we get all our girls back out next year with a few summer miles on their legs, the team potential next year will be very exciting.”

Staples-Motley was the team champion with 37 points and West Central Area was second with 82.  They were followed by Albany (100), Minnewaska Area (101), Eden Valley-Watkins/Kimball (201), Melrose (207), New London-Spicer (214), Pierz (262), Holdingford (262), Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta (267), Breckenridge/Wahpeton (282), Benson/KMS (305), Long Prairie-Grey Eagle (318), Paynesville (333), Ottertail Central (334), Royalton (417), Litchfield (441), Sauk Centre (455), Pillager (467), Border West (511), Ashby/Brandon-Evansville (640) and Osakis (682).   

 Here are the individual results for area runners by team:
West Central Area
1. Lexi Bright 19:10.3, 12. Macy Grosz 21:06.6, 16. Taylor Bennett 21:29.2, 20. Terina Blascyk 21:36.9, 34. Halle Foslien 22:18.2, 37. Sydney Ulrich 22:32.3, 80. Alexa Blume 23:28.2

Staples-Motley
3.Kyanna Burton 19:15.8, 4. Aften Robinson 19:28.1, 7. Audrey Brownell 20:22.2, 9. Ashley Robben 20:54.8, 14. Naila Mikhaeil 21:22.0, 45. Addisyn Cichos 22:44.6, 109. Arabella Moore 24:41.4

Breckenridge/Wahpeton
27. Gabby Baumgardner 22:00.7, 35. Rachel Gowin 22:24.9, 57. Hailee Bruce 22:59.2, 76. Kiera Wiertzema 23:21.4, 92. Taylor Bommersbach 23:56.3, 104. Madison Rabbithead 24:23.5

Ottertail Central
62. Faith Fisher 23:06.4, 65. Laney Frost 23:09.4, 66. Erika Heibel 23:11.1, 68. Grace VanErp 23:13.2, 78. Ady Tysdahl 23:23.6, 79. Rebecca Johnson 23:26.9, 82. Kyleigh Shebeck 23:29.3

Ashby/Brandon-Evansville
89. Lucea Wales 23:48.1, 131. Hannah Korkowski 26:43.6, 133. Courtney Brethorst 26:54.7, 144. Cailey Schlosser 28:00.5, 148. Kaytlyn Pattrin 29:44.3, 151. Emma Erickson 32:04.3, 152. Kiatta Korkowski 38:51.1

Border West
19. Julia Schmidt 21:36.6, 118. Addison Blume 25:07.9, 122. Ava Klindworth 25:29.7, 126. Karter Martinek 25:36.5, 130. Emily Franzese 26:33.1, 135. Braylen Schmidt 27:03.7, 136. Georgia Gallagher 27:04.8