By John Rittenhouse
Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth's Brad Haak earned a return trip to state, and he was nearly joined by the entire boys' varsity cross country team.
Competing at the Section 3A Championships in Tracy Friday, Haak turned in a dominating performance by winning an individual championship.
With the talented senior leading the way, the Patriot boys made a bid to advance to state as a team after finishing third overall in a 15-team field.
The top two teams and top seven individual finishers at the section level earn berths in the Minnesota State Class A Cross Country Championships that will be staged in Northfield Saturday.
Haak qualified on the basis of his victory, but his team came up one place short of advancing. Canby-Minneota-Lincoln HI won the section team title with 34 points, Jackson County Central was second with 82, and H-BC-E was third with 117.
"We were hoping to get one of those top two team spots, but JCC just ran an awesome race and had a great day overall," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "We gave ourselves a chance by running hard and putting ourselves in a position to run our best, but we just couldnÕt catch JCC."
After the varsity race was nearly one-third complete, nobody could catch up with Haak.
After letting some other runners set the pace early in the race, the defending state track champion in the 800-meter run switched gears and broke out into the lead. No one seriously challenged Haak the rest of the way as he reached the chute at the end of race with a winning time of 17:03.
"At about the one-mile mark Brad made his move to take a 40- to 50-yard lead. He was able to hang onto the lead the rest of the way," Goehle said.
Haak, who races at 1 p.m. Saturday in Northfield, will bring past experience to the state meet.
When he was a sophomore in 1999, Haak earned a qualifying spot by placing fourth in the section event. A side ache led to a 108th-place finish at state.
Haak improved to a third-place finish at the section meet and went on to place 65th at state in 2000.
"He wants to make a bid to gain all-state honors this year, which means placing in the top 25 at state," Goehle said.
Tyler Bush, Greg Van Batavia, Lee Jackson and Kale Wiertzema joined efforts with Haak to give the Patriots their best finish at a section cross country meet as a team.
Bush placed 12th in 18:03, Van Batavia 25th in 18:47, Jackson 39th in 19:03 and Wiertzema 45th in 19:18.
Matt Buck and Nathan Fick finished 54th and 58th in 19:39 and 19:56 respectively without influencing the team score.
A group of five Patriot girls made school history by finishing with 338 points and placing 13th in a 15-team field.
"This was the first time we had a complete girls' team for the section meet, so that was an accomplishment in itself," Goehle said. "I told the girls that they shouldn't scoff at placing 13th. That's right about where our boys' team placed at the section meet three years ago."
Cassi Tilstra produced the best finish by a Patriot girl in section competition by placing 31st in 17:29.
Brittney Rozeboom placed 50th in 18:04, Amanda Tilstra 91st in 20:21, Becky Broesder 96th in 20:28 and Stacy Bush 102nd in 21:07.