JOURNAL Sports

Cross Country season ends at Sections

By Bruce Karnick

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The Hastings Raiders Cross Country team had one final meet to go, the Section 3AAA meet, and as Coach John Dewall explained last week, it was all about having fun and getting Tyler Bushinski to state. Bushinski was the Raiders top runner all season who consistently finished as the top male runner for Hastings. He also had the best chance of earning a spot in the state meet.

The location was Valleywood Golf Course in Apple Valley, a much better drive than Owatonna last year. It was cold and misting and the running surface was very soggy. The course was laid out beautifully on a very nice turf, but it was just wet. Wet grass is not easy to run in and it tends to be very slow.

The girls team finished ninth in the section with a total of 233 points. (Place, Name, Grade, Time)

40, Jordyn Doughty, 10, 22:38.4

46, Emma Kelly, 10, 24:24.6

47, Autumn Adricula, 12, 24:28.8

49, Molly Caturia, 11, 24:54.6

51, Hannah Hoff, 9, 25:13.7 The boys also finished ninth with a score of 239.

11, Ty Bushinski, 12, 16:30.7

53, Thomas Seibenaler, 12, 18:20.1

55, Aiden Stoltz, 10, 18:42.1

59, Max Albertson, 11, 19:09.2

61, Aaron Herber, 11, 19:19.7

62, Noah Quigley, 10, 19:49.7 Bushinski beat his personal best by 20 seconds and finished 11th overall, unfortunately, that was still 10 seconds short of making it to state.

The team did have a great time at sections, most notably laughing at Adricula for losing a shoe midway through the girls race.

“The gravel was the worst part, it really hurt running on that,” Adricula said after the race. Of course, the team was also impressed that she kept running and never gave up. The best part about these kids is they are there to support each other no matter what. Throughout the course or at the finish line, they did it as a team.

With the cross country season officially over, The era of a Dewall lead cross country team is also over, but you would never know it. Dewall was still smiling ear to ear and soaking up every moment with his last group of runners. There are two seasons left for Dewall, Nordic Ski and Track.

The focus of the boys may have been to help get Tyler Bushinski to state, but they are still a team of kids running for each other. Photo by Bruce Karnick