After qualifying last season for the Class A state cross country meet as an entire team for the first time since 2005, one of the goals of the International Falls girls team is to return there for the second straight year.
The Broncos placed second at the 2011 Section 7A meet to advance to the state competition at St. Olaf College, where Falls finished 16th in the team standings.
Most of last year’s team returns, including the Broncos’ top runner from 2011, junior Sydney Raboin, who finished fifth individually at the Section meet.
Three others who placed in the top 20 at the Section meet also return, including eighth-grader Lexi Erickson (13th) 12th-grader Amber Harms (15th) and 11th-grader Amy Auran (20th). Auran had also qualified for state individually in 2010.
Other returning runners include 12-grader Rachel Foss, 11th-grader Katie West, and 10th-graders Shelby Wolden and Megan Schwartz.
Gone from last year’s girls team is captain Kelsey Eibler.
“We will miss her leadership and her hosting the entire team at her house for a spaghetti feed the night before our home meet,” said head coach Paul Hjelle. “She did this the last five years.”
Hjelle said the depth of having the runners back from last year’s team will be a strength this season.
“Sydney, Lexi and Amber are running well early,” he said. “I know that they have individual and team goals that they want to reach. We need the rest of our team to jump on board and really improve as the season moves along.”
At this time, Hjelle said, “we hope we have a few new girls to the sport that will challenge and push our veterans.”
In addition to returning to the state meet, Hjelle said the team goals this season include a top-two finish in the Iron Range Conference meet and being able to “get stronger with every race.”
However, Hjelle said he is the concerned about the possibility this season that “the girls will just assume a trip to state is guaranteed” and “we won’t be able to run as a pack.”
Along with a need to run close together, Hjelle said the girls team also needs the desire “to get better and better.”
“It’s not how you start the season, it’s how we finish it,” he said.
Hjelle said he is looking forward this season to the “girls getting better with each meet and watching their confidence grow.”
He said the girls teams to look out for this season include Esko, South Ridge and Crosby-Ironton in Section 7A and Grand Rapids and Hibbing in the IRC.
Bulk of Bronco boys back
Falls’ boys cross country team is also returning the majority of its runners from last season with the key losses being captain Charlie Gordon and T.J. Wickstrom, both of whom were in the team’s top seven in 2011.
“Our boys were competitive in almost every meet and did show great strides as the season went on,” Hjelle said. “They also ran super at Sections and came away with a seventh-place finish.”
Gordon, along with returning 12th-graders Cade MacKay, Marco Griffith and Aaron Geiss also finished in the top 40 individually at last year’s Section meet.
Two other top returning boys runners to the varsity team include 12th-grader Logan Veillieux and 11th-grader Wyatt Ulrich.
“We’ll find out how badly these runners want it shortly,” Hjelle said. “They have the potential to be a fine team.”
Hjelle said having “the nucleus of our team back, and they all have cross country experience,” will be a strength this season.
“If we can get these five guys going and add Dakota Ruelle and Jason Pumper to the mix, it might provide for some much need competition amongst this group of fine young men,” he said.
However, Hjelle said a weakness the team faces is not being able to run together as a pack consistently with the top runners having “too much of a spread” ahead of others farther behind who count in the team standings.
Hjelle said the boys team goals include a top-four finish at the Section meet.
“Support all of the runners,” he said. “Give 100 percent at every practice...no short cuts.”
Hjelle said he is concerned the most about the “veteran leadership we will be losing at the end of this season,” while he is looking forward to the “chance to compete and get better with every race.”
He said the boys teams to watch out for this season include Esko, Mesabi East and Crosby-Ironton in the Section and Grand Rapids and Eveleth-Gilbert in the conference.
Falls’ cross country teams begin the season Monday at a meet in Thief River Falls.
The Broncos will be holding only one home meet this year when they host the Hial Pike Cross Country Meet on Oct. 11 at the Falls Country Club.
