As the leaves start to change colors, the Boys Cross Country team starts to pick up their pace. Six meets into their season, the boys are truly in midseason form. On Sept. 26, they traveled to the University of Minnesota for the 30th annual Roy Griak meet. The meet consisted of a mix between division one, two and three colleges, both boys and girls, as well as boys and girls high school races. College teams from across the country participated, and schools from the border states competed at the high school level. Junior Braydon Kubat added, “It’s a challenging course and always seems to provide us with a highly competitive atmosphere. This year happened to be another hot meet that really tested our body’s abilities to cope with the exhaustion that comes from the heat and terrain of the course.” These factors may have contributed to the 41st place finish out of the 49 teams.

The following week, the boys headed to Hyland Park in Bloomington for the Jaguar All-Terrain Challenge. It seemed to be a perfect fall day for running. Senior captain Nick Raichle said, “It was nice running in the shade the whole race. Even though there were hills, what goes up must come down.” The hills were tough for the team, but provided a boost going down the hills. The team really picked up their pace, finishing second out of 15 teams.

On Oct. 8, they hosted their home meet, the Ev Berg Invitational. The team was pretty pumped to have a race in their own backyard. Sophomore Brett Ruiter said, “Our course at Brooktree is the fastest course we run all year. We have the home crowd behind us, so we should put on a good show.” The weather was chilly and overcast, but that did not stop the varsity runners from running their season best times. Although they gave great effort, the boys still finished 7 out of 11 teams. Head Coach David Chatelaine said, “The boys ran really well, most of them getting their PR’s (personal bests). We are still looking to improve meet by meet.” The team placed 3rd  at the meet on the Oct. 13 in Mankato, and their next home meet is Oct. 20, for the Big 9 meet.