The Northfield High School cross country team had a chance to preview the course where the 2024 Big 9 Conference championship will be held, as it competed in the Ev Berg Invitational at Brooktree Golf Course in Owatonna on Thursday, Oct. 15.
“This meet is a great preview of the Big 9 Conference race, not only because it is run on the same course, but because 11 of the 12 Big 9 Schools were in attendance (only Faribault was missing),” NHS coach Janet Smith said. “There was also some great AAA school competition present with Rosemount, Lakeville North, and Eagan also there.”
She added, “Our team’s strategy this meet was to go out harder in the first mile and work our way up the field in the second half of the race. The boys efforts paid off with 42 lifetime best and 6 season best performances, out of 51 Raiders who ran in the meet. The weather was finally cooler and with great footing on the Brooktree golf course, we were really excited to see the team’s progress.”
As a team, Northfield placed seventh in an outstanding field of runners at the event. The Raiders posted 87 points, while No. 4 ranked (Class AAA) Rosemount won the race with a score of 48. No. 3 (Class AA) Mankato East placed second with a score of 71 followed by Lakeville North at 110, No. 5 (Class AA) Winona at 123, No. 4 (Class AA) Mankato West at 142 and Eagan at 145. Northfield’s junior varsity squad also placed seventh at the competition.
Jason Aldorfer paced Northfield at the event with a 15th-place time of 16:29.1 followed by Isaac Schleif with a 17th-place finish of 16:31.9. Fletcher Aylin (47th place at 17:21.1) and Grant Selchow (49th place at 17:14.6) both posted top 50 finishes in the race, while Conner Kobes placed 64th at 17:48.0. Weston Sweeney (83rd at 18:36.6) and Leo Sahlin (91st at 18:58.8) also raced for the Raiders at the varsity level.
According to Smith, six of the seven varsity runners had lifetime best performances (and one was only four seconds off their PR and ran a season best time). Of note, Sweeney ran in his first varsity race and dropped 39 seconds from his lifetime best time.
In the junior varsity race Cameron David, Calvin Detert, and Odin Christopherson all broke the 19 minute barrier and Northfield had an additional 10 more JV athletes all who went under 20 minutes.
The Raiders will take a week off from competition this week as they prep for the upcoming Big 9 Conference meet at the Brooktree course in Owatonna. Smith looks to Mankato East, the defending state champs, to be a top contender at the meet along with strong competition from Winona and Mankato West (all ranked among the state’s top 10 Class teams in 2024).
“We are hoping to place fourth in the conference and beat Owatonna and Rochester John Marshall who will be looking to track us down,” Smith said.
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