Saint John’s Prep Senior is the State Cross Country Champion Posted on November 4, 2023 in Activities, Press Releases, Student NewsTagged all-state, community, cross country, leadership, Preparatory, seniors, state champion Olivia Pauly ’24 is the First Johnnie to Earn the State Title Saint John’s Prep is proud to congratulate Olivia Pauly ’24 for winning the MSHSL Class A State Cross Country Championship race on November 4. She is the first Johnnie athlete to earn the state championship title. The race was held at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in Falcon Heights, MN with 160 athletes competing. Olivia was in a strategic 23rd place one mile into the race, about 10 seconds behind the lead group of runners. Olivia moved up to first place at mile two. She held on to the top spot and accelerated into a dominate lead for the last 1.1 miles of the race. She crossed the finish line a full 11 seconds before her closest competition! Not only did Olivia win the race, but she posted a course record with a time of 18:20.5. Her pace during the 5k run was 5:53.9. Olivia completes her senior cross country season as the Central Minnesota Conference Champion and the MSHSL Section 5A Champion. Olivia is still weighing her options for competing in college and she is looking forward to competing in her senior season as a captain for the Saint John’s Prep track and field team. Olivia is coached by Lance Nydeen, Kurt Salzl ’87 and Stephen Woods ’09. Olivia is the daughter of Jill and Jonathan Pauly of Saint Cloud. She the sister of Sofia Pauly ’27, who also earned all-conference honors for cross country, and all-conference honors for soccer this fall. It has been a very successful season for the Prep Cross Country program. Both the Saint John’s Prep girls’ and the boys’ cross country teams won Central Minnesota Conference championship titles on October 17. The girls’ team placed third at the Section 5A meet. Junior Louise Ruzanic also earned an individual spot to compete at the state meet. She finished in an impressive 11th place! Click here to read more about Louise’s season and trip to the state meet! The Saint John’s Prep boys’ cross country team won the section championship title and earned competed as a team at the state meet. Hansen ’24 earning third place in the championship race. Click here to read the details about boys’ team seventh place finish at state!
