Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth-Edgerton sophomore Tyler Bush approaches the finish of Saturday's Class A cross country race in Northfield. Bush placed 15th overall to lead the Patriot boys to a sixth-place effort as a team.
By John Rittenhouse
Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth-Edgerton's first appearance as a team at the Minnesota State Class A Cross Country Championships in Northfield has to be considered a big success.
With one Patriot boy running his way onto the All-State roster and a sixth-place finish as a team, H-BC-E-E can be proud of its performance during the fall classic staged on the campus of St. Olaf College.
“We finished sixth as a team out of 16 teams, and we were 19 points out of third place,” said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. “I’m extremely proud of our guys for placing sixth. You always want to finisher higher, but we could have easily have done worse and dropped out of the Top Ten.”
Goehle had a good idea that Staples-Motley and St. Cloud Cathedral, teams that finished first and second in the Class A standings with 77 and 127 points respectively would finish one and two. After offering that, he added that places three through 10 would be up for grabs.
Goehle’s foresight proved to be fairly accurate as 52 points separated the teams that placed third through 10th.
H-BC-E-E’s 191-point total was 19 counters behind La Crescent, which finished third with 172 counters. Perham (180) and Eveleth-Gilbert (185) bested the Patriots by 11 and six points respectively.
H-BC-E-E edged Blue Earth Area 191-192 for sixth place. Warroad (202), Canby-Minneota-Lincoln HI (213) and Plainview (224) round out the Top Ten.
Along with leading his team to a sixth-place finish, sophomore Tyler Bush became the second H-BC-E-E runner to earn all-state status during the course of the race in as many years.
Bush, the Patriots' top performer all season, placed 15th individually out of 159 runners. The Top 25 finishers in the race make the All-State Class A Team.
Brad Haak placed 14th at the state meet last year to become the first Patriots to make the all-state team.
Since H-BC-E-E was competing as a team, Bush’s adjusted place (which is the place an individual finished compared with all other members of 16 teams involved in the varsity race) was ninth.
Senior Zach Hadler, sophomore Kale Wiertzema, junior Todd Alberty and sophomore Greg Van Batavia made contributions to H-BC-E-E's team tally.
Hadler’s adjusted place was 33rd in 18:08. Wiertzema (43rd in 18:20), Alberty (51st in 18:27) and Van Batavia (55th in 18:29) impacted the scoring with their adjusted finishes.
Overall, Hadler, Wiertzema, Alberty and Van Batavia finished 60th, 76th, 87th and 92nd respectively.
Junior Lee Jackson and sophomore Derek Haak ran without influencing the scoring.
Jackson, who ran an 18:40, finished 66th in the adjusted standings and 108th overall. Haak, who ran a 19:47, finished 104th in the adjusted standings and 150th overall.
Considering all of his runners, with the exception of Halder, will be back next year, one would think Goehle would be looking forward to the 2003 season.
The coach, however, has a different take on the situation.
“Right now we're spending most of our time being thankful for making it to state this year instead of looking ahead to next season,” he said.
“There is a lot of time between now and next season, and we can put next year on the backburner for now. Besides, just because you were good one year doesn't necessarily mean you will have one the next year. The potential his there, but it will take a lot of hard work to get back to state.”
Here is a look at the final Class A boys' team standings.
Standings: S-M 77, SCC 127, La Crescent 172, Perham 180, E-G 185, H-BC-E-E 191, BEA 192, Warroad 202, C-M-LH 213, Plainview 224, Annandale 235, Minnehaha Academy 260, East Grand Forks 266, United South Central 283, Mayer Lutheran 350, Duluth Marshall 350.