Running Toward Glory: Owatonna Cross Country Heads to State

Jack Hawkins, Writer

October 31, 2025

Boys and girls coaches and athletes smile after punching their ticket to state.

The Owatonna Boys and Girls Cross Country teams have both qualified for state. The girls were runner-ups by eight points with a score of 66 and Farmington at 58. The boys finished second to Lakeville North by a two-point margin. Lakeville North finished with 55 and Owatonna ended up with 57.

This is an incredible achievement for all of these athletes to have, especially knowing that they are going for state on their home grounds. The Huskies always host the conference and section meets at Brooktree Golf Course because of the flat grounds and favorable terrain.

Sophomore Clara Sennott bringing her team to victory. (Josh Walerius)

The future is bright for the girls. Young talent doesn’t come around too often, especially when multiple underclassmen athletes are competing at a varsity level. Four sophomores scored points for the Huskies including a seventh grader named Bergen Rolloff, who was also able to contribute.

Leading the way for the Owatonna girls finishing in seventh place is sophomore Gracie Randall, running a PR of 19:28.4. In tenth was sophomore Clara Sennott with a season best of 19:46.1. Following right behind in eleventh was sophomore Leah Leckner running 19:47.8.

Boys Senior Captain Ayoub Farah finished in first place with an impressive 15:39.2, destroying his old PR of 16:02.9. Farah is the first Huskie to win the section since 2009. He says, “It feels good and it’s a culmination of the hard work that we put in during summer training and it’s a testament to great coaching and a fabulous team atmosphere.”

Senior Dawson Levy running to the finish line. (Josh Walerius)

The Huskies had two other students crack the top ten. Senior Dawson Levy finished in seventh place with a time of 16:08.8. In ninth place, Junior Grayson Slotsve dropped a PR of 16:15.5.

For the Boys, going to state is something the program has been looking forward to for a long time. The last time the team ran at state was 2012. They are proud of this accomplishment and are ready to take down the competition at state.

The state meet takes place at the Les Bolstad Golf Course on Saturday Nov. 1st. The boys run at 2:30 p.m. and the girls follow right after at 3:15 p.m.

About the Contributors

Jack Hawkins, Photographer/Writer

Jack Hawkins is a junior this year at Owatonna High School.This is his first year in Magnet. Hawkins is involved in Owatonna boys soccer, basketball, and Captain of the boys track team. He is also involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters,Yearbook, Thriving Minds, Kindness Retreats. Outside of school Hawkins enjoys hanging out with friends and lifting weights. Hawkins plans to attend a four year college after he is done with high school and is undecided. Hawkins joined this year to learn more about magnet and meet new people. Hawkins is very excited to see what the school year has to come.

Josh Walerius, Photographer in Chief

Josh Walerius is a senior at Owatonna High School. This is Walerius’s first year in Magnet. Walerius decided to join Magnet due to wanting to gain experience in the photography field; and he had an extra study hall he wanted to get out of. Walerius is involved with Yearbook, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and National Honor Society. After high school, Walerius hopes to attend Riverland to gain his associates degree before possibly transferring to university to continue pursuing photography. Walerius recently traveled to Hawaii and hopes to travel to Ibiza in the future. Along with being heavily involved with photography, Walerius likes to listen to Drake. Out of every song by Drake, his favorite came out to be Come Through or Over My Dead Body.