MCAA Conference Meet Recap

The Trinity Cross Country teams battled through the mud and rain at the MCAA Conference Meet on Tuesday afternoon in Bloomington, on the school grounds of host Concordia Academy.

The girls raced first and the lady Tri-hawks had aspirations of competing for the team title.

For the first time in MCAA history it appeared that Providence Academy was vulnerable, and they would be racing without their top runner, Katherine Chambers, as she was sidelined with mono. The primary competition would come from an improved Trinity squad and a young and talented Maranatha Christian Academy team.

Maranatha runners, Laura Torgerson and Aly Kehn, rose to the challenge and led the Mustangs with a 1-2 finish in 16:22 and 16:34. Providence Academy has a talented roster and was going to fight to retain their MCAA title. Liz Chambers (16:37) and Julia Hengel (16:41) finished 3rd and 4th to lead the Lions.

Sarah Ennis (16:48) and Theresa Gross (17:06) were able to keep the Trinity hopes alive with 5th and 6th place finishes.

In the end, Maranatha proved to be too strong. Johanna Knight (7th - 17:11), Paige Speich (10th - 17:27) and Hope McCullouch (12th - 17:46) rounded out the team scoring and gave the Mustangs a 1st place finish with 32 points.

(left to right - Torgerson, Kehn, Chambers, Hengel, Ennis and Gross)

Solid performances by Rosie Simonse (8th - 17:13), Jayme Beukelman (11th - 17:43) and Nicholle Daley (13th - 17:47) secured a 2nd place finish for Providence Academy with 39 points.

Trinity finished 3rd with 56 points as Carmen Quinlivan (14th - 17:56), Rebecca Driessen (15th - 18:01) and Maria Stephenson (16th - 18:10) were the remaining Tri-hawk scoring runners.

Katie Gerdes (18th - 18:23), Katie Stephenson (20th - 18:31) and Catherine DeMarais (28th - 21:01) completed the Trinity field.

"I was pleased with the effort. I thought Sarah Ennis raced particularly well, while Katie Gerdes and Maria Stephenson ran personal bests in poor conditions," said Trinity cross country coach Jesse Schoen.

"Our girls ran well today on a wet and sloppy course, but the entire Maranatha team had a great day and Providence had some exceptional individual performances and we weren't able to finish in the mix for the team title as we had hoped."

The boys team took to the starting line as the slight favorite over Providence Academy and Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity.

This race featured a dual of the top two MCAA runners from the 2007 season - Zach Haskins of Heritage Christian Academy and Luke Gross of Trinity. Haskins raced to an early lead, with Gross and Petey Simonse of Providence Academy within striking distance at the mile mark.

Over the second mile, Gross pulled away from Simonse and began to close the gap between first and second place, but Haskins was able to race tough and finish first in 17:06. Gross finished 2nd in 17:29 and Simonse held on for 3rd in 18:01.

Meadow Creek Christian, in their first season of cross country, was led by Grant Fritz with a 4th place finish in 18:28. Brad Jakobitz (5th - 18:36) of Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity and Rich Guderian (6th - 18:41) of Maranatha Christian Academy, finished as the top runner for each of their respective schools and also earned All-Conference recognition.

Cody Sommer (7th - 18:45) and JonElliott Brubaker (13th - 19:30) fueled the Trinity charge to put 3 Tri-hawk runners in the top 13.

Chris Gross (19th - 20:48) and Charlie Leighton (20th - 20:49) moved up throughout the duration of the race, picking up key positions to secure a 1st place finish for Trinity with 42 points compared to 54 for Providence Academy in 2nd place.


Joe Hrbacek (23rd - 21:40) and Jonathon Valentas (26th - 21:55) were the other varsity runners to contribute to the Trinity victory.

(left to right Valentas, Hrbacek, L. Gross, Sommer, Brubaker, C. Gross and Leighton)

"Charlie Leighton and Chris Gross were in 25th and 26th positions at the mile mark and they each moved up 6 places over the next two miles to secure the MCAA title for us today," said Schoen.

"Luke became a three-time all-conference selection for his career with a strong run and Cody Sommer earned all-conference honors by turning in his most competitive performance this season."

The 2008 MCAA Conference title was the fifth in six seasons for the Trinity Boys Cross Country program.