So, hopefully we get more of us to be running next year at this race.”

Linnea Ronning

The Minnesota State High School League held the State Cross Country Meet at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in St. Paul on Saturday, November 2. Thousands of spectators, runners and coaches descended upon the University of Minnesota property near the State Fair Grounds for a beautiful day of running for all three MSHSL Cross Country Classes, A, AA and AAA. The schedule rotates each year and this year, AA had the early shift, AAA was the midday shift, and A had the afternoon shift. For Cross Country, Hastings is in the AAA Class.
Hastings had one runner qualify this year for the State Meet, Linnea Ronning, who was making her third straight state appearance. Ronning may have been the only official entrant for Hastings, but the Raiders Girls Varsity team showed up as if it were another team event. The team did everything together they do before every meet, a high carb dinner the night before and an afternoon jog to keep the legs moving. The only difference for the team was the where, they took the trip up to the state course to preview things together.
On the day of the race, the group arrived around 10:30 a.m. with warmups starting around 11:45. Ronning had her teammates with her there too. They warmed up together and during the race, the team followed her around the course cheering every chance they could. Their support helped keep Ronning in high spirits even when she felt she was moving slow during the race.
“It is a really tough course, and everyone is just really fast, like the fastest in the States. So, there are a lot of girls with really similar times to me. There's a ton of hills on the course we were all going up. Sometimes people would pass me, and it made me feel slower. But then I would just try to keep picking people off, keep passing the next person in front of me,” said Ronning.
She also discussed how initially; she felt like she was running slow at the start of the race. What she did not realize was, the first half mile, she was roughly 20 seconds from the lead runner.
“Coming in, Linnea was in the biggest clump of runners time wise,” said head coach Joe Rabaey. “On paper, a change of 10 seconds either way could move you twenty spots and her fastest time this season put her in the mid 40’s.”
By the time she had reached the first mile, Ronning was right where she finished last year at state, in 48th place.
“That was a fast first mile,” added Rabaey. “And then by the end of the race, she worked her way up even though the last two miles were hillier and the harder miles to run. Whenever you finish ahead of where you are projected at the state meet with the best girl runners in the state, you cannot ask for anything more right?”
Last year, Ronning completed the race in 19:27.1 which put her in 48th place. This year, she cut 8.3 seconds off her time to finish in 19:18.8 moving up nine places to finish 39th.
Ronning had to fight for every spot she took, “I think I passed maybe six people in the last 200 meters. It was my favorite part of the race,” she said.
That sprint the last 200 meters does not come out of nowhere; it takes dedication and hard work all year round.
“Linnea doesn’t want to brag, but she ran more this summer, over 200 miles, which is more than she has ever run before. This was easily her most consistent season with her faster times and it helped her with all the hot meets we had this fall. As her coach, I could not be more proud of her,” said Rabaey.
Ronning hopes that more of her teammates can join her running at the state meet.
“That would be amazing, they came to support me during this race, and I just loved running past them and hearing them cheering me on. It was so fun. So, hopefully we get more of us to be running next year at this race,” she added.
When asked what advice she would give her teammates to get to the state meet, “run 200 miles over the summer!” she laughed.