Boys Distance
Between the four distance events, Wayzata has 13 different runners competing at the Hamline Elite Meet. You read that right. And they didn't barely squeeze in, either. In the 800, Frank Fetrow and Patrick Leonard occupy the top two seeds. In the 1600, the seeds are four, seven, and 12. And in the 3200, one year after having seven athletes run, Wayzata puts in five of the top 10 seeds.
Of course, this is what you might expect from a school that proved to have not only an elite varsity cross country team this past season but also possibly the best JV team in the nation -- one that could have defeated any other varsity squad in the state, save one.
That one team would be Edina, which has a paltry-by-comparison total of seven distance athletes running. Of course, five of those athletes are running the 1600, in which Zac Miller comes in with the top overall seed.
At this point in the season, few ought to be surprised to compare the entries for the 1600 and 3200 and see there is a definitely lack of athletes doubling in those events. In 2016, in fact, not one single athlete did.
But in 2017, there is one, and he is Alex Miley. The 15th-place
finisher at NXN this past season comes in seeded second in the 3200 and sixth in the
1600 and has a great shot at winning both.
But to do so, he'll not only need to take down tough opponents in Miller, Parker Phillips, Jack Korte, Jebediah Merkle, and this past fall's Class A XC champ, Declan Dahlberg, in the 1600, but he'll also be running tired against fresh elites such as fellow NXN qualifiers Seth Eliason and Khalid Hussein as well as Class A star Lucas Mueller. Reigning Class AA XC champ Patrick Roos is also running the 3200 on the heels of a leg in Edina's 4x800.
As for that 4x800 meter relay, I suspect few will be surprised to see names like Wayzata, Edina, or Stillwater in there. In fact, seven of the teams in the relay return from 2016's Elite Meet, including five of the top six team finishers. One team that you can always count on to put up a great battle is this past year's third-place finisher, Bemidji, led by Isaac Berg. So don't let the low seed fool you.
The Reed Kurak-led Centennial team and the Tyler Moore-led Little Falls will also figure strongly in the final outcome, as will the team from Mora, which agonizingly fell shy of a Class A state championship in this event this past spring thanks to the misfortune of running out of the slow heat.
But knowing the reputation of Wayzata and Stillwater (the alma mater of Olympian Ben Blankenship and seven other athletes who went sub-four minutes in the mile in college), you know they are going to be very difficult to beat.