BP girls run away with Gopher title
Blooming Prairie’s girls’ cross-country team stands proudly with its Gopher Conference Championship trophy. The girls team won the conference title for the first time since 1995 last week. Photo from Facebook
Blooming Prairie girls’ cross-country gave the competition a great view of their spikes last week when the entire starting five pointed inside the top 10 to comfortably win the Gopher Conference Championship.
The Awesome Blossoms’ 24 points were 17 better than WEM/JWP for second place on a day where Gloria Hernandez shattered the school record and all five qualifiers set personal bests.
“It wasn’t the nicest of days weather-wise, but our kids came in very focused and ready. We knew we were in for a big day,” said Blooming Prairie head coach John Bruns.
Hernandez led all Awesome Blossoms in third place – albeit taking second place for team scoring purposes – and set the first-ever sub-20-minute time in Blooming Prairie history with her 19:38.8 finish.
The historic mark comes just one race after she set a 20:20.1 mark to beat out Bobbie Bruns’ time of 20:29.0 from 2016.
However, Hernandez’s performance was just the tip of the iceberg for the Awesome Blossoms.
Blooming Prairie’s Haley McIntosh and Sophia Esplan continued to impress by finishing fourth and fifth in individual scoring.
Both set personal records with McIntosh finishing in 20:57.1 and Esplan crossing in 21:04.3 – good for third and fourth all-time in the Blooming Prairie High School record books.
Also cracking the top 10 was Evie Emanuel, who took eighth place individually (sixth in team scoring) in 22:14.3 for a personal record and seventh all-time for the Awesome Blossoms.
Rounding out the pack was Bella Romeo’s 23:24.9 that earned her 13th place (ninth in team scoring), a personal record and 11th all-time.
Blooming Prairie’s boys’ team also had a strong showing at the Gopher Conference Championships and took second place by a mere eight-point margin to WEM/JWP.
Mason Peterson led all Awesome Blossoms with an 18:19.2 personal-record time for sixth place.
Andrew Schwarz followed close behind and crossed 10th in 18:52.9.
Blooming Prairie’s final three qualifiers were Jeffrey Bruns (14th – 19:24.3), Isaac Fort (23rd – 20:04.5) and Justin Olsen (24th – 20:25.7.)
Medford and NRHEG were also represented at the Gopher Conference championships.
The Panthers saw two impressive finishes from top runners Julieann Wobbrock and Jacob Karl.
Wobbrock continued to shine as the Gopher Conference’s best girls’ runner and won the individual championship with a 19:17.2 personal-record time.
Karl was also superb and crossed the finish line in second place with a season-best time of 17:33.2.
The Medford Tigers had a difficult day managing the conditions and finished fifth in boys’ competition with 101 points, while the girls finished last with 102.
Both Blooming Prairie and Medford will compete next at the Section 1A meet at Northern Hills Golf Course in Rochester on Thursday, Oct. 23 at 3 p.m.
Meanwhile, NRHEG will compete at the Section 2A meet at Baylor Park near Norwood Young America on the same day.