Wayzata senior Abbey Nechanicky appeared if she was making up for lost time on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022.
Nechanicky, who didn’t run in the Minnesota State High School League’s Cross Country State Meet in 2021 because of an injury, blazed to the Class AAA individual championship on the 5,000-meter course at St. Olaf College in Northfield. Her time was 16 minutes, 47.7 seconds. She finished 52.1 seconds in front of runner-up, Sydney Drevlow, a sophomore at Hopkins, and a top challenger of Nechanicky’s during the Lake Conference season. Forest Lake sophomore Norah Hushagen was third in 17:48.6.
Nechanicky, the big-school runner-up in 2019, is ranked third nationally and has committed to run at the University of Colorado. She put on hold momentarily her postrace news conference because she wanted to cheer on not only her teammates, but all participants as they finished. She was full of high-fives and congratulations for all.
The delay wasn’t long as the next four Wayzata runners finished quickly.
Wayzata cruised to the team title with 39 points, 50 ahead of runner-up Minnetonka, which had 89. Mounds View was third with 127.
Also scoring for the Trojans were senior Teegan Anderson, senior Grace Mignone, freshman Maddie Gullickson and sophomore Alyson Kleyman.
