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By Steve Underwood, DyeStat Senior Editor
Nike Outdoor 2-mile champ Elizabeth Yetzer (Lakeville North, MN) bounced back from a 4k loss to Bria Wetsch (Holy Family Catholic, MN) to beat her fellow senior in the Girls Gold 5k, 17:46-17:58, highlighting the huge and spectacularly presented Roy Griak Invitational in St. Paul, MN Saturday. Yetzer, Wetsch and soph Lindsay Anderson of Leeds-Maddock, ND (18:10) were all under the old course record of 18:12 set in 1996 by Victoria Moses.
In the Gold Girls team competition, SW#3 Rocky Mountain, Ft. Collins, CO put two in the top five and three in top 13 to score 103 and easily beat HL#9 Lakeville North (175) and US#13/HL#2 Roosevelt, Sioux Falls, SD (193). Following those teams were Sioux Falls SD O’Gorman in 4th, US#18/HL#3 Iowa City, IA 5th, Wayzata, MN 6th, and HL#10 Minnetonka, MN 7th.
On the boys side, unranked Lakeville North had four in top 32 to hold off US#23/MW#2 Shawnee Mission NW, KS in the Gold Race, 189-203. MW#7 Edina, MN was 6th. After breaking away from a tight pack, Mike Torchia of Rochester Lourdes, MN outsprinted T.C. Lumbar of Edina, MN, with both clocking 15:34.
Girls Races
Faith and focus were the keys for Yetzer this week in reversing a tough loss to Wetsch eight days earlier on the former’s home turf. In that race, Wetsch ran a blistering 13:44 4k to beat Yetzer by 20 seconds, confirming the sharp improvement curve she had been climbing during the summer.
Despite another outstanding race by the Holy Family Catholic runner, this time it was last spring’s 2-mile revelation (10:15) who was better. The winner followed when Wetsch broke away from the pack mid-race after a large group went through the mile in 5:38, then put the pedal to the metal in the final 600.
“Today I was a little more mentally prepared,” said Yetzer, who was 2nd here last year. “I just sang praises to God and felt relaxed the first 2.5 miles. Then I really tried to kick with 600 left.
“Last week, I don’t know what happened,” she added, “but I did a lot of visualization this week.”
Wetsch hardly had a bad race, making her first career foray under 18. “I felt good out there, but at the end it was hard,” she said. “But I’m happy. Hey, she’s the 2-mile champ.”
The senior said her improvement in recent months has been due to increasing her summer mileage to 65, doing more tempo runs, hills and basework, and overcoming sinus problems that plagued her last fall.
While many of the best runners in Minnesota were doing battle, the rare 5k (there are no others for girls in MN) event was also a chance for top teams from several other states to match up. It turned out to be a rising power from Colorado that backed up a one huge victory from the previous week with another. On September 16 Rocky Mountain, Ft. Collins, CO took the D-1 race of the prestigious Liberty Bell meet. Here, they had the best finishers in just about every spot to win by 72 over defending champ Lakeville.
Senior Dani Parry and jr. Ellie Rastall pushed each other all the way, taking 4th (18:14) and 5th (18:18). McKenzie Maher was 13th in 19:10 to close out an impressive top three.
“We’re really happy with how it went,” said Parry. “We didn’t know what to expect; we had a lot more oxygen, that’s for sure!” The team normally trains at 5,000 feet altitude.
Coach Mike Maher brought his team to Minnesota to get some big meet exposure. “We also want to keep running tough teams in Colorado and in the SW region,” he said. “Some of the toughest competition we face is in our own city (Ft. Collins).
“This meet told us we have a very good team,” he added.
Roosevelt and Iowa City came in with the most impressive reputations, but the former showed they have a ways to go to get healthy and the latter showed the effects of a hard-fought win just two days earlier.
Neither of the Eckert sisters, both juniors, were at top strength for Roosevelt, with Allison running her first race (15th/19:18) since getting injured in an auto accident almost a month earlier. Two-time defending champ Krista, trying to come back from summer injuries, was 6th in 18:26, matching her time from last year, but finishing five places back.
Allison, reduced to walking very gingerly around the finish area for a long time after the race, said, “It was a new experience, definitely the hardest race I’ve ever done.”
“It was a tough race and I struggled some on the hills,” said Krista. The injury, shin compartment syndrome, is “something I’m dealing with. “I think we can all get in shape for the end of the season and be ready.”
“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” said Coach Kristi Rieger. “But this team is a way from hitting its stride.”
Iowa City had topped hot rival Iowa City West in the Eastern Iowa Classic Thursday. Brittany Dlhy won there, but was 17th here and their tight 3-6 gap was spread out.
The Maroon race went by 43 seconds to freshman Brea Tinney of Osceola, WI in 19:17. Waseca edged Chaska by 10 points, 64-74, both well up on the rest of the field.
Boys Races
Pre-race prognosticators had trouble picking an individual favorite for the boys Gold Race and at 3000 meters there were still plenty of contenders, including Torchia, Lumbar, sophomore speedsters Rob Finnerty (Burnsville, MN) and Andrew Perkins (Watertown, WI), experienced Tucker Weems of Shawnee Mission, California Foot Locker finalist Riley Booker, and Roseville senior Tim Branigan (Roseville, MN), practically running in his own backyard.
But there was no doubt who had the wheels in the last 800 as the top two pounded down the final straight in easily the most thrilling finish of the day. Finally, in the last 30 meters, Lumbar’s legs got rubbery.
“We were both side-by-side and I was trying to make some moves,” he said. “But it wound up a lot like sectionals in track. My legs started to give out at the end and I just about fell.”
Of his team’s performance, Edina’s first loss of the year, he added, “We just haven’t put together our best race yet.”
“At about 2.5, both of us kind of took off,” said Torchia. “But really I just wanted to go out there and run my own race and be able to answer to myself.”
The end, the 2004 Minnesota Class A champ added, “was kind of a blur.”
Finnerty was a decisive 3rd in 15:38, followed by Branigan (15:47), Perkins (15:53), Weems (15:54) and Booker (16:06).
Probably echoing several of the other contenders, Finnerty said he was “pretty satisfied until the last half-mile, then I hit a wall.” Earlier, the Griak newcomer who set state freshman records of 4:16.95 1600 and 9:06.800 3200 last spring had led at several announced junctures.
The pack ran the first mile in 4:54.
Meanwhile, Lakeville North, with six seniors, moved up from 3rd in 2004 and got a big team victory by topping the Heartland’s #2. They won on the strength of their top four, which spanned 42 seconds and were all in the top 32, and despite a bit of a “swap” of their top two. Tim Bruhn, normally the team’s leader, started a little slow, but worked his way up into 8th, while Tyler King, normally the No. 2, went out with the lead pack and held on for dear life in 13th.
“I went out a little faster than I usually do,” said King, a sophomore. “The lead pack broke me, then I held on.”
Bruhn was 20th early on, he estimated, then tried to pick off as many as he could. In the end it worked for a team that wanted to establish itself in its home state.
“We knew Shawnee Mission was here,” he said, “but we focused on the white jerseys (Edina).”
King said the key to the team’s success this season might be the progress of their 5th man. “We’ve got a strong top four; he just needs to keep getting closer to our 4th man,” he said.
Joe McCrary finished in 17:38. “He steps up every week,” said Coach Bob Ertl. “I think he passed about 10 guys in the last 100.”
His sentiments were similar for the way his team ran in the second half of the race. “It takes a lot of patience to start under control and really move in the last 1k. They really did it.”
Shawnee Mission moved up from 4th last year, but while Weems ran two seconds faster, he was a place further back, and his somber demeanor said it all. “I had a little trouble the last 2k,” the 2004 Kansas state champ said. “We ran pretty strong as a team, but we have room for improvement.”
The Maroon race went to Josh Wohlers of Hudson, who clocked 16:52 to win by nine seconds. His team, packing their 2nd through 5th runners between 20th and 32nd, won with 107 points, 15 up on Minnetonka.
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