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Boys Race Preview
Projected team scores
Top individual times
Flo50 teams: 8 Hopkins (MN), 19 Washburn (MN), 23 Dowling Catholic (IA)
Flo50 individuals: 15 Sam Clausnitzer, 21 Jaret Carpenter, 25 Seth Hirsch
Top returning individuals: Carpenter, Riley Osen, Robert Wagner, Andrew Sell, Clausnitzer, Ryan Schweizer, Owen Hoeft, Michael Mather, Jonathan Shirley, Hamza Ali
History doesn't have a great kick. Edina and Wayzata learned that the hard way at the Minnesota Section 6AA meet, where they were stopped from advancing to the state meet by Hopkins and Washburn. That was despite Edina and Wayzata having grabbed the two auto qualifiers to NXN each of the last two years, and having taken over half of the auto bids in the region's history.
The Section 6AA meet went Hopkins 52, Washburn 57, Edina 62, Wayzata 63, while the state meet went Hopkins 34, Washburn 67. Translation: Hopkins is better than everyone else, but that second spot is very much up for grabs. Joining Edina--who made it to NXN after not making it to state last year--Washburn, and Wayzata in the scrap for that second auto spot is Dowling Catholic of Iowa. Take results from Roy Griak with a mountain range of salt--cross country results from seven weeks out often don't say much--but at Griak, Dowling Catholic beat Edina, Wayzata, and Washburn 104-138-142-162.
Kansas state champ Osen, North Dakota state champ Clausnitzer, Wisconsin state champ Finn Gessner and Nebraska state champ Hirsch are rooting for Wayzata and Dowling Catholic to make it, as Jaret Carpenter and Ryan Schweizer are having dominant seasons. If not, those six are the favorites for the five individual spots. But it's wide open--the top twelve and sixteen of the top seventeen boys from last year's race were seniors.
THE PICK: 1. Hopkins (MN) 2. Edina (MN)