Saturday, November 5, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN -The halls of St. Olaf were packed with participants, coaches and fans trying to stay warm in the 35-degree weather before they had to head outside for the first race of the day. Hastings Head Coach, Joe Rabaey was one of those waiting until the last minute to head outside to watch his lone qualifier, Linnea Ronning.

“It is a big day you know, but also at the same time it's just another race,” Rabaey explained what he just told Ronning. “You've made it this far, put in all the hard work, so, it's really just about going out there and doing your best that you can do and having fun because it is a fun event. It is the biggest race a high schooler can really do, and she's earned it.”

In total, there were three classes running, each with boys and girls and each group having 160 runners. In all, there were 1,080 runners expected to run the course for the state meet. 1,080 of the state’s best high school cross country runners. For Cross Country, Hastings is in the Class AAA group and out of the 160 girls that qualified, Ronning was ranked 29th.

“She’s ranked 29th, but there's about 15 people on either side that are within 15 seconds of that. I mean, I'm expecting her to go out and have a great race, but it'll be fun because she's got more people around her than she has had all year,” added Rabaey A top 25 finish earns the runner ‘all state’ honors of which Ronning certainly has the ability to attain.

“She’s a competitive runner and she is out there to win,” said Rabaey. “It's a not a super tough course, but it is a little bit tougher, it's colder weather and it's been a little bit since most people have raced. It’s kind of all up in the air.”

The cold affects each runner differently, most runners do run faster since they are not sweating as much and during the race, the cooler air feels good for most runners. Before and after is a different story.

Ronning started the race on the right side of the starting line and once the gun fired, she took off like a rocket to gain a lead over a cluster of girls. As she hit the mid race mark, the group Ronning was a part of had dwindled to about eight runners.

The final stretch down the chute to the finish Ronning was mixed in with the same group of girls from the midpoint of the race. She crossed the finish line at 19:21.24, good for 39th place.

Placing 39th out of 160 at the state cross country meet is a phenomenal performance for anyone. What makes it more remarkable is Ronning is only a freshman, and she is already a fierce competitor at that.

“I let two girls pass me at the end,” said a not-so-happy Ronning right after crossing the finish line.

The state meet is controlled chaos. Thousands of people descend upon the St. Olaf College campus in Northfield for a chilly fall Saturday at the end of each Cross-Country season. Those thousands of people are constantly vying for the best spot to see the finish line, so they can cheer on their runner. Thankfully, the media pass allows reporters and photographers to get right in the finishing paddock for the opportunity to get the best finish photos, but there is a small catch. Once that five seconds of ‘click-click-click’ is over we go from reporter to familiar face, the first familiar face in a crowd of a thousand that the athletes recognize. The familiar face they need at the moment for their brain to realize, it is time to change gears.

Most of these kids are exhausted when they cross the finish line, they truly leave everything on the trail with many collapsing just a few steps after they cross. This is a piece that many are not aware of, these kids are dazed, many just trying to catch their breath and looking for their coach, their team, a familiar face to hold them up while they return to reality. These are the athletes that define ‘in the zone.’ It’s amazing and scary to witness at the same time, some reach a moment of panic because they push their bodies so hard and just a few minutes later, they are back to being human.

Ronning had come close to that panicked look on her face. She had never been here before, never part of a race that had a thousand people crammed into a small area. Never been in a race where she had runners around her, never been in a race where she wasn’t at the top of the leaderboard and never been in a race where her team was not running with her. This was all new to her and that is a scary place to be for a 14-or 15year-old kid. “What do we do? Do we stay in here?” she asked as the two of us walked to the end of the paddock.

She was still catching her breath, composing herself and looking around in both amazement and fear, a fear that quickly faded. We had found her teammates in the crowd and that is when Ronning had finally returned fully to reality. As her teammates and assistant coach Emily Hovseth were giving her all the compliments they could, Ronning returned to the first thing she said after crossing the finish line… “I let two girls pass me at the end,” she said.

The team laughed with her and her competitive nature, reassuring her that she did a great job on the course. The next thing was to find her dad and then Coach Rabaey. Once Coach Rabaey was done with the hugs and praise, they started looking at times.

Ronning’s best career run was at sections where she completed the 5000-meter course in 18:52.1 which was good for second place. The winner of the section meet was Bloomington Jefferson’s Megan Lee at 17:42.5. On the state course, Lee finished fifth with a time of 18:05, or 23 seconds slower than her section time and Ronning finished with a 19:21.24, or 29 seconds slower than her section time. Those times line up pretty proportionately to each other running the same “slower” than sections which is a different course than state and has significantly less runners at 60, than state at 160.

For the state meet, Ronning placed 39th overall with a time of 19:21.24. The firstplace runner was Abbey Nechanicky from Wayzata who completed the course with a new state record of 16:47.61. Had the Section 3AAA champion run her same time from sections, she would have only moved up one spot to fourth, had Ronning run her section time, that would have put her in 20th.

Ronning and Rabaey started breaking down the differences and the smile began to grow on Ronning’s face as she realized what she just accomplished. Running with 160 people is very difficult at the start because they all start spread out on a line and that funnels to a much smaller point to enter the course. Seasoned runners know to have a chance at the top spot, they need to make it to the funnel point very quickly.

“I was so nervous, but I saw all the people there and I was just thinking about sprinting out at the start” explained Ronning. “Everyone's trying to go to the same place, so, people would come in and if I didn't get ahead of them, if they were at a slower pace than I want to, I couldn't get in front of them without getting caught.”

After the crowd thins out, there are still clumps of kids on the trail and for a runner like Ronning, who is not used to running in a competitive pack, that can and did throw her off.

“Yeah, they were showing no mercy they were cutting right in front of me and then like they would almost elbow me as they cut right in front of me,” laughed Ronning.

This was a great learning experience for the Raiders as a whole explained Rabaey. “Linnea has such a sweet disposition so for her to mix it up in a cluster of runners never crossed her mind, but things get brutal in there when they are jockeying for position. It’s a whole different experience, especially when you are used to running out front.”

Ronning reflected on her takeaways too, “I learned I need to keep my place, to not let people push me around on the course. Just keep going, keep your pace and get bigger.”

The spectacle of any state competition is on a whole different level than everyday competitions and even section competitions. The shear size of the competition can throw kids off their game.

“There's so many people here it's a huge race,” added Ronning. “There were so many people! I was freaking out, and but it's really fun and I liked being able to be here this year.”

After the dust settled, the race was over, parents and team were found, the look on Ronning’s face said a thousand words, but the ones that seemed to stand out the most was being able to enjoy the moment with her team and family. The final question was next year, how many people are you bringing with you?

“The whole team,” she said. “All as state qualifiers.”

Coaches Emily Hovseth (left) and Joe Rabaey pose with their state runner, Linnea Ronning, after the state meet at St. Olaf College in Northfield. Photo by Bruce Karnick