By JIM LUTGENS
Editor/Publisher
The NRHEG cross country teams traveled to the Montgomery-Lonsdale Invitational last week for their second outing of the season.
Out of 30 teams, the girls finished 25th with 660 points and the boys were seventh with 743.
Katherine Lewer, an eighth-grader, led the Panther girls with a 95th-place finish, clocking 18:37.8. Following for NRHEG were Melissa Malakowsky, 119th, 19:32.7; Crystal Olson, 146th, 21:14.5; Shantaya Olson, 148th, 21:36.5; Destinee Meyer, 152nd, 22:17.4; and Megan Conley, 161st, 24:46.
Prior Lake won the girls’ meet with 66 points. The Blake School was second at 109.
“Katherine is a little bit rusty, but I think she is ready to lower her time,” said Panthers coach Mike Weber. “It was good to get Melissa in the lineup. This was her first race and she did well. She has some natural talent. Crystal was again very consistent. Taya was also a little bit rusty, but as school starts and schedules become more consistent, her time will improve. Destinee looked vastly improved, taking off minutes from her previous times.”
Leading the NRHEG boys was sophomore T.J. Schiltz. He finished 20th with a time of 17:49. Following for NRHEG: Jade Waltz, 162nd, 21:36.1; Raece Johnson, 184th, 24:05.2; Dustin Burshem, 187th, 25:01; and Tyler Holz, 190th, 25:13.3.
Mahtomedi won the boys’ meet with 54 points. Blake was second with 90.
“T.J. had a very good performance against some of the state’s best runners from some big name schools,” said Weber. “Twentieth was a good finish and T.J. is much improved from last year’s performance at the same meet. Jade was a solid second for us with a comparable time to last year. Raece’s battle; he hadn’t felt the best but had a good finishing kick.”
The Panthers run Thursday, Sept. 15 at Maple River. The NRHEG Invitational is Tuesday, Sept. 20 at Riverview Golf Course.
