Huskies sprint on to state
Owatonna’s Carsyn Brady, right, sprints past two Farmington athletes during the Section 1AAA Championship Meet. Brady finished in 11th place at 20:34.3 to lead the Huskies’ girls’ squad to qualify as a team for the upcoming state meet. Staff photo by Johnnie Phillips
Owatonna cross-country team gave the home crowd at Brooktree Golf Course a reason to cheer today at the Section 1AAA Championship meet with the girls’ squad qualifying for the state meet as a team and boys’ athletes Jack Sorenson and Leyton Williams earning their spots as individual competitors.
The girls’ team lit up the trails with all five scoring athletes finishing in the top 20 to earn 80 points, placing the team in second behind Farmington’s 40 points.
“It’s fun to be in the mix going into the race because that’s where you want to be at this time in the season. But to come out and go to state after not doing how well we would’ve liked at the Big Nine meet, it’s a big exclamation point. And now we have another exclamation to make at state,” said Owatonna girls’ coach Dan Leer.
Senior Carsyn Brady led Owatonna’s girls' team in 11th place at 20:34.3 with teammates Leah Leckner (15th), Clara Sennott (17th), Kendra Melby (18th) and Clara Meier (19th) all chasing close behind her.
“I feel like it’s so exciting to have our whole team there and being able to do this with all the girls. We’ll have a bunch of people there too, so the energy is going to be really cool,” said Brady.
On the boys’ side, Owatonna athletes Sorenson and Williams punched their tickets to the state meet by finishing in fifth and 10th place respectively.
“I didn’t even know what my place was until I fell on the ground and they pulled me up and told me I made it… My mood went from like kind of sucky after not finishing how I wanted to, to just happiness knowing I accomplished my goal for the season,” said Sorenson.
All qualifying Owatonna athletes will compete next at Les Bolstad Golf Course at the University of Minnesota on Saturday, Nov. 4.
The boys’ race will start at 10 a.m. with the girls’ race immediately following at 10:45 a.m.