Cross country runners are by nature optimistic. They put in high mileage in the offseason, train hard from mid-August to early November and come to the state meet with high hopes of a championship.
One team of Class AAA runners was already looking forward to winning the state meet next fall, but then one of the girls reminded her teammates: “Wayzata has all of their runners coming back.”
Wayzata, the team that has dominated girls Class AAA cross country the last two years, does return state individual runner-up Maddie Gullickson and fifth-place finisher Lila Golomb for next season, along with 10th-place finisher Jazleen Malherek-Osorio and 13th-place runner Miley Clark. But not everyone is coming back. The Trojans will graduate their two best seniors – Julia Link and Aly Kleyman. So there might be a slim ray of hope for another team – with the emphasis on the word slim.
The Trojans invaded the University of Minnesota golf facilities on Nov. 2, and there was no doubt which team would win the title. Wayzata scored 42 points for the top spot on the podium. Forest Lake, with the individual state champion Norah Hushagen, was a distant second with 76. Completing the top five in the team standings were Prior Lake 111, Minneapolis Southwest 146 and Minnetonka 189.