Wobbrock and Hernandez qualify for state
Blooming Prairie’s Gloria Hernandez, fourth from right, poses for a photo with the top 10 finishers from the Section 1A meet. Hernandez finished in seventh place to secure her spot at the Class A state meet on Saturday, Nov. 1. Photo from Facebook
Blooming Prairie and NRHEG cross-country will both be represented at the Class A state meet this season after the Awesome Blossoms’ Gloria Hernandez and Panthers’ Julieann Wobbrock both qualified as individuals.
Both teams competed at separate section meets, but the two Gopher Conference standouts both showed out for their fans by running some blistering times en route to punching their tickets.
Wobbrock has been Steele County’s fastest girls runner this season and continued her streak of great runs by placing fourth and making some school history.
“For the Lady Panthers, Julieann Wobbrock had another breakout performance, finishing fourth overall with a personal best time of 19:01.38. With that time and placing, she has become the first NRHEG girl runner to compete at the state meet since 1994 when the race was a 4k distance,” said NRHEG Head Coach Larry Nydegger.
According to Nydegger, it was Crystal “Shoe” Schutrop who placed 22nd for the Panthers back in 1994.
Meanwhile, Blooming Prairie’s Hernandez made sure to secure her spot at state by crossing the finish line in seventh place in 19:44.4.
It was also a historic day for the Blooming Prairie girls cross-country team as a whole, with the team finishing in fifth place (161 points) for the best section finish in team history.
The team also had three athletes finish inside the top 20 at the meet with Hernandez (seventh), Haley McIntosh (13th) and Sophia Esplan (19th) all reaching the mark.
According to Blooming Prairie Head Coach John Bruns, only four Awesome Blossoms in school history had previously managed to crack the top 20, making the fact the team had three in one year all the more impressive.
The Blooming Prairie boys team also raced on the same day and placed 14th out of 21 teams with 363 points.
Leading the way for the Awesome Blossoms was freshman Mason Peterson in 47th place (18:55.6.)
NRHEG also had senior Jacob Karl race as the team’s lone male athlete at sections, where he placed 11th with a personal-record time of 16:57.9 to narrowly miss out on qualifying as an individual by one place.
The NRHEG girls team placed 11th with 260 points.
Blooming Prairie’s Hernandez and NRHEG’s Wobbrock will race together at the Class A state meet on Saturday, Nov. 1 at 10:45 a.m.