State Meet Week

It is the week of State, and Ruby will be racing on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 10:00 am.  The location for State has moved this year, and will now be at Majestic Oaks Golf Course in Blaine.  We will be having a bus on Saturday, that will be leaving at 8:00 am sharp, and we can take those with that would like, but please note that tickets will need to be purchased before getting to the venue.  Also, please let me know as soon as possible if you are planning to take the bus so we know about how many to expect.

For practice this week, Ruby will be running at 2:40 after school (Tuesday will still need to be discussed), and anyone that would like to run with her, is more than welcomed to.  It makes it easier for her and if it is a harder workout, we like to set things up with others to help her work on certain things and people to chase down. 

Below is information n the meet for those that are intending to go with or to the meet on their own to spectate.  

1. Spectator shuttle parking and operations will take place at Blaine High School. Ticketing will take place at Blaine High School and all spectators will be directed there to park and ride the shuttle buses. 

2. Team buses will be able to drop and pick up participants at Majestic Oaks, then will be directed to the National Sports Center to park. 

3. Only meet personnel, Majestic Oaks Staff and team passenger vehicles will be allowed to park on site on race day

For tickets, please go to the link below and purchase tickets prior to arriving, whether you are on the bus or if you are parking at Blaine High School and shuttling over.  

https://www.mshsl.org/tickets

Once on the link, scroll down to Cross Country Running.  If you are intending to watch all 6 races on the day (Ruby is in the 1st one), these tickets will allow you to be there all day.

For purchasing of apparel before the State Meet, please use this site: https://mshslcc.signatureconcepts.shop/

Here is a guide for spectators as well: https://www.mshsl.org/sites/default/files/2026-10/2026-cross-country-spectator-guide_1.pdf

All information, including parking, ticketing, and spectator guidelines, as well many other things, will be here.  If you are planning to go, please read through this information.  Programs are no longer available on site, only online programs are available, which you'll be able to find here as well.

SPECTATORS ON COURSE: Need to stay behind the fences in order that all runners will have a fair opportunity to do their best. Spectator interference may result in the disqualification of a team or individual.  Also, no pets on the course!

Thanks, and any questions, please let me know or check out the spectator guide,

Denny

Section Meet Results

Congratulations to Ruby as she qualified for the State Meet for the third straight year, with a 3rd place finish in today's Section 7AAA Meet!

Congratulations to the whole program, both the Boys and Girls teams, as they ran solid races today, Varsity and JV.  The Boy's finished 8th out of 8 teams and the Girls were 7th on the Varsity side, with the JV teams finishing 11th out of 14 teams on the Boy's side and 9th out of 11 for the Girl's, but today's races were not just about team or individual placings, but about the continued growth and development, and taking steps forward in the times that they have been running, and ending the season in a different place then where we started in August.  Of the 31 runners that competed for the Cardinals today, 16 ran All Time Personal Records and 5 more ran Season Bests!! 

Thank you for all of the Cardinal fans, friends and families that came out to support the hard work that the runners put in, not only today, but for the whole season!  

The team will meet tomorrow at normal practice time to do team voting but also continue to help Ruby as she gets ready for the State Meet next Saturday, Nov. 7! We are putting together a bus for those that would like to come along to watch and support her!

Lastly, team uniform turn in will be a day or two after our team banquet, which is on Friday, Nov. 13th.  Once I have the day confirmed, I will let everyone know.
Thanks,

Denny 

Week of Sections

Here are a couple of items for the Section Meets on Thursday, Oct 29 for the Varsity and JV.  A list of who will be running Varsity is also below.  Those not listed will be running in the JV races.

This will be the last meet of the season for most of the team, but also the opportunity to qualify for the State Meet at Majestic Oaks GC on Saturday, Nov. 7th.  Please note that the Varsity will be in the late morning/early afternoon and that the JV runners will be late in the afternoon.  We will actually have two bus times and the Varsity will come back after the awards.

Those that qualify for the State Meet will be the 1st and 2nd place teams, as well as the 6 fastest runners that are not on those two teams.  The weather is looking like temp wise will be perfect for fast times, hard to say at this time if there will be any rain or not since there looks to be a chance of rain most of the week.

Also, please remember that there are no dogs allowed.  We don't want a dog getting lose during the race and interfering with a runner.

Varsity Runners:
Boys: John, Nixon, Josey, Tate, Vincent, Cullen, Truman

Girls: Ruby, Emmy, Mackenzie, Faith, Alexa

Varsity times:
Bus Leaves at 9:45
Boys - 11:30
Girls - 12:10

JV times:
Bus Leaves at 2:45
Boys - 4:30
Girls - 5:10

Any questions, please let me know,
Thanks,

Denny 

2026 Banquet Info

  2026 Cross Country Running Banquet 

The season is coming to an end it is time to look back on the accomplishments of the 2026 edition of the Coon Rapids Boys and Girls Cross Country teams.

This year, our banquet will be on Friday, Nov. 13, 2026 starting at 6:00 at the CRHS Cafeteria.  This will be a Pot Luck affair with each grade of athletes bringing the following: 

7 Seniors: Desserts

9 Juniors: Salads

7 Sophomores: Beverages

10 Freshmen & Under:  Entrees

Please note that there are 32 members of the team, 1 manager, plus three coaches, as well as family members of these athletes that will be attending, so please bring accordingly.  All plates, silverware, napkins, and cups will be supplied.

Due to Allergy concerns, if you do make anything with nuts in it, we ask that you mark it.

This will be a night in which we will be handing out all team awards and such, so we do appreciate you being a part of this event to celebrate the accomplishments of the athletes and the team. 

We are also wanting this to be a more formal affair for the athletes.
If there are any questions, please let me know.  Thanks, Denny

Banquet Date Change

Due to a scheduling conflict, we had to move the banquet to Friday, November 13. We are still going to be at the High School cafeteria and it will be a pot luck. More information on the banquet will be posted within the next few days. 

Thanks!

Denny

Northwest Suburban Conference Meet

Congratulations to Ruby as she earned her 5th All Conference Award yesterday at the Northwest Suburban Conference Meet.  Ruby finished in a solid 13th place as she continues to come back from injury and illness, and led the Girls Varsity to an improved 8th place team finish in the 13 team conference!  On the Boys Varsity, John in 49th and Nixon in 53rd, both less than 10 seconds from Honorable Mention, led the team to a 12th place finish, moving up from last year.  Both JV teams also showed big improvements with 8th place finishes as well, moving up from their positions last year.  Ruth led the Girls JV placing 22nd and Ben 27th and Kaiden 30th, led the way for the Boys JV.

Our Individual and a link to the Overall Results are posted on the right side of the blog.  It was a beautiful weather day on a more challenging course that was hard, and our runners ended up having their best meet on the season so far. We ended up with 17 PR's and 7 additional Season Bests out of 31 runners that we had racing!  Considering how fast the courses and times were a month ago where we had a lot of PR's, it shows how much work they are putting in and their improvements, not just over this year, but from where they were as a team and individuals a year ago!

Thanks to all of the parents and fans that came out to support and cheer on our runners!! Barb has updated her link in our Picture section, so please make sure to check those out as well.  

Next up is a good week of training with the JK5K at Anoka on Thursday the 22nd.  Just a reminder, this is a practice, not a race. We will have a bus that will take us there and bring us back, leaving at 3:15.  We should be back to the school just before 5:00.

Thanks,

Denny

Week of the Northwest Suburban Conference Meet

Thanks to those that were apart of our Cardinal Cup races last night!! It was a very positive evening, and one that surpassed what I was thinking and hoping it would be like!! There was a lot of energy from everyone and I hope that it made it a fun night for everyone!! Great effort put in by everyone in all three races as well!!

Below is information for Wednesday, which is the NWSC Meet at the Elk River Country Club.  Also, please remember that this week is also MEA, and due to the Conference Meet being on Wednesday, our workouts for Thursday and Friday will be just straight runs, so we are going to not have any organized practices those two days.  We will, however, give the runners their workouts for those two days on Wednesday.

Any questions, please let me know,
Thanks for all of the support!
Denny

Time and Order of Races:

2:45 National Anthem

3:15        Girls Varsity Race 

3:55 Boys Varsity Race 

4:35         Girls JV Race 

5:15 Boys JV Race 

        6:00         Awards Presentation

1. Total All Conference awards to be equal to two times the number of schools participating: Year 2026: The top 28 finishers in the girl’s varsity race and the top 28 finishers in the boys’ varsity race will be recognized during the award ceremony. 2. Honorable mention All Conference honors will go to the 29th through 42nd place finishers in the boys and girls varsity races.

Just a forewarning for Parking at the Conference Meet, most people will be able to park on the driving range that is north of the main lots, but some may have to park on the street that will be a little bit of a walk.  This is a busy road, so if you do end up parking on a neighborhood street, beware trying to cross to get to the course.  If there is any change in parking, I will let you know.

Elk River (Conference Championships): 20015 Elk Lake Rd.  Highway 10 west to Proctor Ave. in Elk River, go north (right).  Go 2 miles to the Elk River Country Club, which will be on the right.  Additional parking will be available at Woodland Trails, just north of the Country Club.

NWSC Meet @ Elk RIver GC, October 14, 2026
Girls	Boys
Varsity	Varsity
Mackenzie Reiland	John Vandagriff
Faith Kue	Tate Burnett
Ruby Demmer	Nixon Glenn
Alexa Sabatke	Josey Jacobs
Emmy Fuller	Cullen Jayasekera
	Truman Smith
JV	Vince Congdon
Genavive Kostuck
Ellie Sadler	JV
Ruth Hutton	Mohamed Mustafa
Zoe Felller	Ben Moline
Vera Lee	Kaiden Castillo
Leah Kirkpatrick	Xavier Pantoja
	Eli Post
	Max Kirkpatrick
	Will Gable
	Alvin Nguyen
	Blake Zaviska
	Yoltzin-Micael Rincon
	Avalyn Nagan
	Mason Pflugshaupt
	Brecken Jayasekera