Sports
Offseason Training Preps Wayzata Girls Cross Country
The Trojans open the 2011 season on Friday as one of the top teams in Section 6AA
Wayzata’s girls cross country team will have high expectations before they ever line up on the starting line this season.
“We have a lot of great talent,” Wayzata coach Dave Emmans said. “What’s nice about it is that they’re willing to train.”
The Trojans enter the season ranked second in their section, just behind No. 1-ranked Eden Prairie. Wayzata finished seventh in the Class AA meet a year ago and returns three of its five state runners from 2010.
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The squad took its offseason running seriously.
Ten of the runners from Wayzata went out to Colorado this summer to run on Copper Mountain for a week. One of the runners’ parents owns a condo in the area. They ran between six and seven miles each day in the high altitude.
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“It was fun, but a lot harder,” Trojans runner Anna French said. “It’s going to be a lot different with lower altitude.”
A year ago, graduates Kathryn Keller-Miller and Talia Berndt finished 45th and 47th, respectively. French was the team’s top finisher at 17th place and returns for the Trojans. She also has as a No. 3 rating in the section preseason individual poll.
“We hadn’t been to state in a while, so it was exciting,” French said.
Annika Halverson and Alayna Sonnesyn also ran in state for the Trojans, and they return to the team again. Halverson finished 47th, and Sonnesyn took 63rd at state.
French and Halverson are rated among the top-ten in the section's preseason ratings—No. 3 and No. 9, respectively. The Trojans’ McKenna Evans has a No. 11 preseason rating, and Sonnesyn and Bryn Balls-Barker cracked the top-20 in the individual poll.
“We just try and run our best and not focus on the pressure,” French said.
The girls will run their first meet at Rosemount High School on Friday, Sept. 2, at 10:40 a.m. They will run at a few major meets in the upper Midwest. They will run at Iowa State University on Saturday, Sept. 17, and the Roy Griak Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 24, at the University of Minnesota’s Les Bolstad Golf Course.
The Trojans also have a large squad and will split their team of 80-plus runners several times during the season. Part of the team will go to the Mega Meet in Milaca on the same day as the Griak.
