Boys’ Cross Country Team Wins Section 5A Championship, Girls’ Team Earns Third

The Saint John’s Prep Cross Country team had a successful trip to the Section 5A Championship race at the Grand National Golf Club in Hinckley on October 26. The boys’ team earned first place and the girls’ team finished in third place. Seniors Nick Hansen and Olivia Pauly both finished first in their races.

Seniors Nick Hansen and Zach Meyer, both from St. Joseph, ran a very tight race. They finished together with Nick pulling ahead by just a tenth of a second to earn first place, with Zach earning second. Junior Ben Suo of St. Cloud earned fifth place in this competitive race. The Johnnies finished as a team in first place with 82 points, ahead of Saint Cloud Cathedral, Pine City, Holdingford and Pierz.

Their section championship title means that the entire boys’ team will compete at the MSHSL A State Championship Race on November 4 at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights.

Name	Hometown	Grade	Time	Place
Nick Hansen	St.. Joseph	12	16:09:30	1
Zach Meyer	St. Joseph	12	16:09:40	2
Ben Suo	St. Cloud	11	17:16:20	5
Aaron Ruesink	Sartell/St. Joseph	12	18:24:20	31
Laurenz Haselbock	Melk, Austria	10	18:46:10	43
PoHaun Lu	Taipei City, Taiwan	12	18:51:20	45
Will Vix	St. Joseph	10	19:21:20	57

Senior Olivia Pauly of St. Cloud earned first place in the race, ten seconds ahead of CHS’s Ella Voit. Junior Louise Ruzanic of Cold Spring placed sixth in the race. Both Olivia and Louise earned individual spots to compete at the MSHSL A State Championship Race. The girls team earned third place overall, behind CHS and Northwest.

Name	Hometown	Grade	Time	Place
Olivia Pauly	St. Cloud	12	18:38:30	1
Louise Ruzanic	Cold Spring	11	19:56.20	6
Margaret Duffy	Cold Spring	9	22:07.20	27
Sofie Pauly	St. Cloud	9	22:28:20	30
Megan Mahowald	Sartell	12	23:10	49
Sylvie Bechtold	St. Joseph	11	23:18:20	51
Ellen Bechtold	St. Joseph	8	23:33.30	56

The Johnnies are coached by Lance Nydeen, Stephen Woods ’09 and Kurt Salzl ’87. Go to this link to see all of the race results.