The Hastings Raiders boys and girls cross country teams both finished fifth at the Metro East Conference Championships on Thursday, Oct. 22, at St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park. The boys scored 91 points against seven scoring teams, while the girls finished with 101 points against six teams. Both squads had runners finish among the top ten or close to the front of their respective 5,000-meter races.
Senior David Tireman led the Hastings boys with a third-place finish, completing the course in 16 minutes, 56.3 seconds. Tireman's performance was a season-best time and placed him behind only Max Molinaro of Two Rivers, who won in 16:28.4, and Gabe Sheppard of Simley, who finished second in 16:49.8.
Tireman's finish gave Hastings three points toward its team total and was the strongest individual showing for the Raiders at the conference meet. He was also the only Hastings runner to finish among the top 15.
Junior Benjamin Schwanke was the second Hastings runner across the finish line, taking 16th place in 17:48.1. Fellow junior James Jensen followed in 20th place, recording a personal-best time of 17:57.2. Jensen's finish gave Hastings three runners among the first 20 competitors.
Brian Mann, another junior, finished 24th in 18:19.2, while freshman Owen Tireman completed the Raiders' five scoring positions with a 29th-place finish in 18:52.4. Those five runners combined for the team's 91 points, with an average time of 17:58.7.
The Raiders also had sophomore Isaac Hamann finish 35th in 19:29.5 and junior Landon Zajac take 38th in 19:34.7. Zajac's time was a personal best.
Two Rivers captured the boys conference championship with 54 points, followed closely by St. Thomas Academy with 59. Simley finished third with 64, while Hill-Murray took fourth with 82. Hastings finished nine points behind Hill-Murray and 70 points ahead of sixth-place Mahtomedi, which scored 161. South St. Paul rounded out the scoring teams with 189 points.
On the girls side, eighth-grader Elliana Lucking turned in the top Hastings performance, finishing seventh overall in 20:35.8. Lucking was the first Raider to finish and one of only ten runners in the varsity girls race to complete the course in less than 21 minutes.
Sophomore Clara Hochmuth gave Hastings another top-ten finish, placing tenth in 21:24.7. Together, Lucking and Hochmuth accounted for just 17 of the Raiders' 101 team points.
Freshman Annika Hauck was the third Hastings finisher, taking 21st place in 22:41.3. Fellow freshman Taylor Johnson finished 28th in 23:49.5, recording a personal-best time.
Sophomore Paisley Grunzke completed the scoring lineup with a 36th-place overall finish in 24:54.9. The five scoring runners combined for an average time of 22:41.3, with a total team time of 1:53:26.2.
Sophomore Savannah Barlow also competed for Hastings, finishing 41st in 26:35.6. Her performance was marked as a season-best time.
Hill-Murray won the girls conference championship with 56 points, just five ahead of Mahtomedi's 61. Two Rivers finished third with 73, followed by Simley with 76. Hastings placed fifth with 101 points, while Tartan finished sixth with 137.
The Hastings girls were 25 points behind fourth-place Simley and 36 points ahead of Tartan. Both Hastings teams finished the conference meet with their leading runners placing among the top ten individuals, including Tireman's third-place finish for the boys and Lucking's seventh-place showing for the girls.
The Raiders now turn their attention to postseason competition. Both the boys and girls teams are scheduled to compete in the Section 3AAA Cross Country Championships on Thursday, Oct. 29, at Valleywood Golf Course in Apple Valley. The meet is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m., with the second race scheduled for 4:15 p.m. The section championships will determine which teams and individual runners advance to the state meet.