By John RittenhouseRunners representing the Hills-Beaver Creek and Adrian programs wrapped up the 2003 cross country season at the Minnesota State Class A Championships in Northfield Saturday.Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth-Edgerton junior Tyler Bush and Adrian seventh-grader Morgan Lynn represented their schools at the state classic.Bush raced his way to an All-State performance by finishing 21st in the boys’ 165-runner varsity race.Competing in her first state meet, Lynn placed 38th in a field of 158 runners with a personal-best time of 15:34.Bush, who was running at the state meet for the second consecutive season, ran a career-best time of 16:32. Since the top 25 individual finishers earn All-State recognition, Bush drew that honor for the second straight year."Tyler did everything we wanted him to do," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "We wanted to run a 5:20 pace (each 1,600 meters), which would have given him an exact time of 16:33. We figured a 16:33 would place him in the Top 10, based on last year’s results. It just so happened that the field of runners was a lot better as a whole this year."Bush shaved 43 seconds off his 17:15 performance at the state meet in 2002, when he placed 15th individually.Unfortunately for Bush, the best performance of his life was not good enough to place him higher than 21st Saturday.Goehle, however, was not disappointed in the performance.The H-BC-E-E coach noted that Bush placed sixth among non-seniors in the state field that featured a state-meet record winning time of 15:41.5 turned in by East Grand Forks senior Matt Damico."Tyler went out and ran his best race ever. He ran at a perfect pace. You just can’t control how the other runners perform at a state meet," Goehle said.If Bush continues to improve as a senior in 2004, he will be a force to be reckoned with at the state meet next season."With a couple of years of experience up there (in Northfield), he has an idea of what he has to do to finish as one of the top two or three runners at the state meet, which is something he would like to do."Adrian’s Lynn has a bright cross country future, too.Lynn emerged as one of Southwest Minnesota’s top runners as a seventh-grader this fall, having five more years of school to make an even bigger impression at the state level."Morgan accomplished more than what we thought she would accomplish this year," said Dragon coach Doug Petersen. "She had a very successful season, and she ran a personal-best time of 15:34 at state."According to Petersen, Lynn met all of her pre-set goals for the state meet."She had a couple of specific goals going into the meet. Morgan wanted to run a faster time than she did at the section meet, and she wanted to beat some of the girls who finished in front of her in the section meet," Petersen revealed.Lynn met both of her expectations.Her time of 15:34 was 23 seconds better than the 15:57 she turned in while placing 10th at the section meet. Lynn also beat five of the 10 runners who topped her during the Section 3A meet.Petersen also seemed happy with the fact that Lynn placed 38th in a 158-runner field."As far as where we wanted her to place at state goes, we left that up in the air heading into the meet. You never know where you will finish from one year to another at state. For a seventh-grader to place 38th, that’s not too bad," he said.Seven of the 37 girls who topped Lynn in the individual standings were seniors.Lac qui Parle Valley-Dawson-Boyd freshman Nikki Swenson won the individual state championship with a meet-record time of 14:27.7.
