The Westonka cross country team traveled to Collinwood Park to compete in the Dassel Cokato Invite on Sept. 23. The athletes ran in unseasonably warm temperatures along with a few brief moments of rain.

"The Dassel Meet was wonderful," head coach Butch Humbert shared. "Course conditions were excellent on what turned out to be a beautiful summer-like day."

The Collinwood Park course is one of the hilliest courses the teams face during the season but that didn’t stop the girls varsity team from a 3rd place team win. Junior Sophia Engesser shined crossing the finish line in third place with a time of 20:06. Also contributing to the team’s great performance were freshman Lydia Engesser (21:46), sophomore Ella Pozer (22:28), junior Anna Regenold (22:44) and seventh grader Raelyn Moslander (22:51). 

The boys varsity team faced tough competition and found themselves in seventh place out of 13 teams. Leading for the boys was sophomore Gabe Lundgren with a time of 19:20. The rest of the team followed closely behind, all coming in within a few seconds of each other: sophomore Jacob Chilson (19:29), junior Levi Hays (19:33), senior Luke Sunnarborg (19:35) and juniors Brendan Rashleger (19:37) and Drew Carlson (19:38).  

The junior varsity boys team placed second out of 9 teams. Sophomore Cal Pearson had an impressive fifth place finish with a time of 19:24. Freshman Kellen Mueller grabbed eleventh place (20:37) followed by sophomore Brody Olson (20:53) in fifteenth place. On the junior varsity girls side, senior Ava Daum had a terrific sixth place finish (24:44) followed by freshman Madison Nelson in eighteenth place (26:05).

This week’s race for the middle school was the longest distance (3K) of the season. Eighth grader Peter Berg had the strongest middle school performance with a third-place finish (12:40). The middle school girls team placed second by having four runners in the top twenty: Olivia Petersen (12th), Abby Kreger (17th), Lillian Flack (18th) and Campbell Hoag (20th).

Coach Humbert commented "It was a really strong week for our kids. We are battling the typical late September injury and illness bug a bit, but overall, our team and teams within the team are taking positive steps forward in several ways. Looking forward, we have some really unique and special practices ahead and what promises to be a fun and successful last month of the season."

The team’s next competition will be the Thundering Royal Elk Meet held in Otsego on Oct. 2 which historically provides many season best times and personal records.