Mahoney takes home Griak gold medal

116 high schools traveled to the University of Minnesota’s Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights for the 2024 Roy Griak Invitational on Friday, Sept. 20. Monticello was one of 35 schools to run in the Gold Race and one Magic runner left the competition in her dust.

Monticello High School junior Isabel Mahoney crushed the opposition in the girls’ race. It was a different course than last year’s state championships which were also held at Les Bolstad Golf Course.

Mahoney’s race started at 5:15 p.m. and just under 19 minutes later, Mahoney was crossing the finish line. The race was not close. She completed the 5k race at 18:56.4, over 30 seconds ahead of runner-up Cara Back from Rogers (19:30.9).

The Course was more rugged than the last time the Magic raced there so times were slower than most courses but that didn’t stop Mahoney.

Two other girls cracked the top 100 individual finishers as the team took 15th with 396 points. Eighth-grader Lauren Rengel (50th, 22:15.3) and senior Kaela Skistad (70th, 22:47) scored well for the team.

Braylen Hansen (116th, 23:40.3) and senior Hannah Johnson (159th, 24:33.3) also scored for Monticello.

Rounding out the runners were eighth-grader Olivia Metzger (25:20.4), junior Mackenzie Cotten (26:14) and eighth-grader Veronica Joseph (28:01.9).

On Thursday, the girls run in an invite at Elk River while the boys run at Pebble Creek in Becker. On Saturday, Oct. 5, the girls are in Alexandria. On Wednesday, Oct. 2, the boys run at the St. Michael Rec Center.