Elk Mound girls win first meet, boys sixth at Osseo-Fairchild

OSSEO – The Elk Mound girls’ cross country team made some school history after winning the 11 team Osseo-Fairchild Invite Oct. 1. It was the first team win for a girls team at the school and in the process, Elizabeth Fasbender broke her own school record. The boys ran some pretty fast times with the top six all finishing under 20 minutes, leading to a sixth place finish out of nine full teams.

Fasbender finished second in the race with a time of 20:37 as Julia Verbick of McDonell won the race in 20:24. Following Fasbender for the Mounders was Alana Plaszcz in sixth place at 21:30 and Brook Plaszcz in 12th at 22:15. Hannah Cedarblade, who returned to her form from last year finished 25th in 23:08, Hanna Hollister was 39th at 24:18, Ciera Lind placed 40th at 24:25 and Meredith Hainstock was 45th in 24:47. There were 76 girls in the varsity race.

For the boys, Nate Kruger ran under the 19:00 minute mark for the first time in his career with a time of 18:55 for 33rd place and a pack of Mounders followed as Hayden Kohls finished 42nd in 19:25, Ryan Mohr 43rd in 19:29, Nate Lind 46th in 19:40, Grant Kjellberg 47th in 19:45, Jonas Kohls 50th in 19:59 and the final varsity runner Jameson Rubenzer just missed the 20 minute mark at 20:03 for 52nd place. There were 68 competitors and the race was won by Dan Lau of McDonnel Central in 16:44.

“It was a beautiful night to run on a fast course,” Mounder coach Jeremiah Fredrickson said. “Nearly all of our runners ran personal best times and I could not be happier with where both the guys and ladies are at this point in the season. We hope to build on this success and lead into a good showing at the conference meet and be ready to run our best at sectionals in a few weeks,” he added.

After a meet at Eleva-Strum Oct. 8, the Mounders will race at the conference meet in Durand Oct. 15.