Metro is always a fun meet. Hundreds of fans, high energy, music pumping through loud speakers throughout the park, and the only lights for blocks are the ones lighting up the course. There are 10 races total, from the littlest runners in elementary school, all the way up through Varsity running in the darkness of night. Glow sticks, light up hair ties, and glow-in-the-dark face paint and glitter give the meet a different vibe than any other. It’s a tradition many runners look forward to.
Middle school girls lead the pack going 1,2 with Catherine Williams and Emily Nelso PRing in their 3,000 M race with an 11:11 and 11:20. Kinsley Fairchild came in with an 11:39 followed by Natalie Pilliod and Harper Allen all placing top 10. Wayzata runs away as team winners with a score of 21, beating 2nd place Eden Prairie by 40 points. The future is looking strong with these girls!
The middle school boys also had a strong showing winning with 31 points, also over Eden Prairie by 51 points. Led by Elliot Williams winning the race in a 10:13, followed by Reid Kruger with a 10:26 and Gavin Klein in a 10:33. Chase Beranek was also in the top 10 with a 10:44. Dynamic showing for the boys!
Wayzata high school girls and boys did not race their Varsity teams, but runners stepped up to fill spots and held their own.
JV finished 3rd of 9 teams with some big PRs. Avery Feia, 10th grader, lead the team, finishing 8th of nearly 200 runners, with a time of 21:36 and finished just a tenth of a second ahead of Senior teammate Catherine Sengupta, who PR’d by 2 minutes. Sawyer Backer ran a season best to finish 16th overall, followed by Kaia Brunsting who also PR’d with a 22:21.
On the boys JV side, Thomas Barrett absolutely crushed the race with a time of 16:58 and winning the heat big. Wayzata had 12 of the top 20 finishers which is impressive. Shivam Patel finished 2nd with a time of 17:23, followed by Oliver Martinson, Zubin Sinha, and Ethan Kim finishing 3rd, 4th, and 5th, while Kim had a huge PR of 17:43. Aiden McNalian, Ethan Parr, and Martin Lindquist rounded out the top 10 for the heat. JV takes home the win with just 15 points, the best score possible in the sport.
Onto Varsity. The girls had their work cut out for them against top runners in the state like Brynlee Wegner from Blaine, but came to show what they could do. Lead by Senior Lucy Issa, and an enormous lifetime best run at 20:02 finishing 49th overall. Kingsley Loso, Claire Herman, and Grace Marley all went sub 21 and finished top 100 for the top girls race. Wayzata finished 10th of 24 teams.
The boys Varsity finished 7th overall, with Freshman Finnegan Allen leading the team with a 16:16, followed by Matthew Wang at 16:42, and another Freshman Brooks Merrill going a 16:52, all PRs for them. Jackson Lueder and Jack Paris all finished sub 17 scoring for the team.
Next week catch JV and Varsity teams in Iowa at the Steve Johnson Invitational where they’ll see some out-of-state talent.
