Week of September 22

There are a few announcements in this post, so please make sure to read through all of the information.

If anyone is interested in purchasing a t-shirt for the NWSC Meet, please follow this link:

 https://nwsc25.itemorder.com/ 

We just got this information on Friday, but this order is due on Tuesday, Sep. 23!

We will be working at a water stop for the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday, October 5th as a fundraiser for the team.  If you would like to help, please read through the information and go to the link below to fill out the registration form.

Fluid Station 3 (Mile 7) during Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon Weekend on Sunday, October 5.

I've attached the group volunteer packet work for you to review and complete if you are planning on joining us. Additionally, I've outlined the steps all volunteers from you group will need to follow to officially sign up.

Steps to register as a volunteer:
1.    Click on the Volunteer Registration Website: https://twincitiesinmotion.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=101047
2.    Enter First Name and Email Address and click "Submit"
3.    Complete or update Volunteer Application, if applicable (this is a one-time step and volunteering for additional events going forward, will only include entering First Name and Email Address as the Volunteer Application creates a unique Volunteer Profile).
4.    On the Volunteer Registration Website: https://url.avanan.click/v2/r01/___https://twincitiesinmotion.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=101047enter___.YXAzOnR3aW5jaXRpZXNpbm1vdGlvbjphOm86YjYxOWVjNmJmOWRiOTI3ODJjM2FiY2ZhMjk1M2Q3ODg6NzphM2E5OmNjNDQyYWQ2MGQ4NmRjNjUwMzMyOTRkMTdmMzAxNmVmYWYwMWQ2MzZiMGJmNzQ0ZGNlN2M2NDEyZTY2ZTYyN2M6dDpUOkY, enter this password: FLUID325 and click "Submit"

5.    The volunteer position will appear, review/complete the waiver (parent/guardian must review/complete waiver for volunteers under the age of 18).

Fluid Station 3 (Mile 7) Volunteer Details
Time: 6:45am - 10:35am
Location: E. Lake Harriet Pkwy. near parking bays by Rose Gardens (between Roseway Rd. and 42nd St. W.)
Volunteer Details: Assist with Fluid Station setup. Service runners as a water and/or Nuun Mixer, Pourer or Holder. A select number of individuals will also assist with Pro Fluids, if applicable. Assist with Fluid Station clean up. Assist with other duties as assigned by Fluid Station captain.

Below is the information for Tuesday's Norm Ayen/Cambridge Invite, at Purple Hawk Golf Course, about 4 miles north of Cambridge.

First race is at 4:00 and then it will be a rolling clock, so exact times of the next races are not known.
7-8/C Race Girls (2.4K)
7-8/C Race Boys (2.4K) (This may be combined with the Girls 7-8/C Race)
Girls Varsity
Boys Varsity
Girls JV
Boys JV

Live Results: live.herostiming.com

Cambridge Invitational: Purple Hawk Country Club: 36300 Highway 65 NE, Cambridge, 55008. Take Hwy 65 North to Cambridge.  Continue on Hwy 65 about 4 miles north of Cambridge to Purple Hawk, which will be on the left side of the highway.

Norm Ayen (Cambridge) Invite @ Purple Heart GC, September 23, 2025
Girls		Boys
JV		JV
Genavive Kostuck		Elijah Post
Jessika Larson		Ben Moline
		Xavier Pantoja
Middle School Race (2400M)		Kaiden Castillo
Vera Lee		Zach Reiland
		Avalyn Nagan
Varsity		Vincent Congdon
Ruby Demmer
Josy Sinigaglia		Middle School Race (2400M)
Mackenzie Reiland		Max Kirkpatrick
Ella LaGree
Alexa Sabatke		Varsity
Emily Bornes		Dagi Alemu
Emmy Fuller		Josh Hyatt
Faith Kue		Tate Burnett
Nyah Fruth		Josey Jacobs
		Nixon Glenn
		Cullen Jayasekera
		John Vandagriff
		Mohammed Mustafa
		Truman Smith

Roy Griak Results

The Roy Griak Invite is one of the bigger races in the country, with teams from around the country coming in to up the competition.  Improvements show in different ways sometimes.  It doesn't always have to show with Season or All Time Bests , it can sometimes show in the overall places of the teams, as well as how the team may have done in the same event the year before, which was the case for our girls team this year, as the boys showed improvements with their developments, running times that were faster than many of their PR's from a year ago! It wasn't a perfect day of running, good temps but a course that was a little spoungy. But that didn't stop our runners as they put forth solid efforts and held their own for where they are currently at in their developments.

Congratulations to Ruby as she continues showing solid performances in the bigger competitions and running smart throughout to move up to 5th place overall in the Maroon Division for Girls.  This helped the Girls team finish in 31st place as a team out of the 49 teams in their Division.  The Boys team was led by Dagi, who finished in 84th out of 412 runners, and helping the team finish in 30th place out of the 49 schools in the Boys Maroon Division.

Thanks to all of the family, friends, and even staff and alumni that were able to come out and watch and support the runners!  There were a lot of spectators out watching the races at the Griak, and to hear and see a few that are familiar are always helpful in dealing with the energy!

Next up is an Invite on Tuesday in Cambridge.  Information on the races will come out tomorrow, Sunday.

Thanks,
Denny

Chisago Lakes Results

On a day that was extremely warm, and on a course that had a lot of open space, our middle school and JV runners ran solid races.  Top runners for the Boys were Eli and Ben, racing with each other and racing it to the line, again, with Eli getting the edge this time!! Vincent and Vera were the first to the line for Middle School Boys and Girls respectively, while Genavive accepted the challenge, not feeling the greatest, as our only JV Girl.

Despite the times not being what our runners would have wanted, the one thing that we as coaches are proud of with the JV/Middle School Runners today, is they worked to the best of their abilities!  They fought, and some struggled, but they ran the race and did what they could to finish.  They will have the opportunity to run faster times in the near future, but for today, times are not what was important, it was the effort and what they could learn about themselves!

Our results are now posted on the right side of the blog with a link to the overall results.  If the link does not work, please let me know and I will see if I can find a different one.  Thanks to all of the parents/fans that sat in the heat to watch our runners! 

Thanks,

Denny

Week of September 15

Below is the information for both Tuesday's Chisago Lakes Invite at the Ki-Chi-Saga Park and Saturday's Roy Griak Invite at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in St Paul. For Tuesday, there is only one race for the Middle School runners (3:30), Girls (4:00) and one for the Boys (4:40).  For Saturday, we are in the Maroon Division for both the boys and the girls races.  Start times are 9:00am for boys and 9:45am for girls.  Please note that at both races, pets are Not allowed.

One other item of note, the Girls team will be wearing Pink uniform tops for both days. We are hoping it will be easier to spot our Girls during the Griak race.  We have not decided if the Boys will wear an alternative uni yet.  We will discuss it at practice Monday and let everyone know.

Lastly, for the Varsity that will be running on Saturday, we would like to for them to come with for support and to get their workouts in there. If they are not able to come with, we would like to be notified so we can let them know their workouts.  With Saturday, we would like those that raced on Tuesday to come with as well so they can see and experience the atmosphere and races.  There will be races throughout most of the day, with close to 200 high school teams competing in 4 races.  We won't stay all day, but if you would like to stick around and watch the rest, it's a good day of racing! (There are also college races on Friday morning)

Any questions, please let me know,

Thanks
Denny

Roy Griak Invitational (Les Bolstad Golf Course):  Bus leaves at 7:30

U of M Golf Course. Take 35W South to Cleveland Avenue South to West Larpenteur. Turn right and follow for a ½ mile on Larpenteur and you will see the Driving Range and Golf Course on the right. For parking use S101 (on the corner of Cleveland and Commonwealth) and the Gortner Ave Ramp. Shuttles will transport to the golf course. Park at your own risk on city streets. 

The University will be charging $12.50 entry fee for adults and $10.50 for students/youth/seniors (62 & above). Kids age 3 & under are free. (Credit card Only)

Please click on this link for more spectator information: Griak Spectator Information

Chisago Lake Invitational (Ki-Chi-Saga County Park): Bus leaves at 1:15.  29061 Glader Blvd, Lindstrom, 55045. Highway 10 east to I35W North.  Take I35W North to I35 North and continue for about 4.5 miles to Hwy 8 East. Take Hwy 8 to Lindstrom and take a right onto CR 25, Olinda Trail and continue to Glader Blvd, taking a left.  Park will be about .8 miles on the right.

Meet Information: Chisago Lake Invite, Course Map

Chisago Lake Invite @ Ki-Chi-Saga Park, September 16, 2025
Girls	Boys
JV	JV
Genavive Kostuck	Ben Moline
	Elijah Post
Middle School Race (3200M)	Kaiden Castillo
Vera Lee	Xavier Pantoja
	Zach Reiland
	Avalyn Nagan
	Ethan Elliot
	Middle School Race (3200M)
	Vincent Congdon
	Max Kirkpatrick
Roy Griak Invite @ Les Bolstad Golf Course, September 20, 2025
Girls	Boys
Varsity	Varsity
Ruby Demmer	Dagi Alemu
Josy Sinigaglia	Josh Hyatt
Mackenzie Reiland	Tate Burnett
Ella LaGree	Josey Jacobs
Faith Kue	Nixon Glenn
Emily Bornes	John Vandagriff
Emmy Fuller	Truman Smith
Jessika Larson	Cullen Jayasekera
Alexa Sabatke	Mohammed Mustafa
Nyah Fruth

Waconia Wildcat Invite Results

Solid performances, a new challenging course on a warmer day, and solid competition allowed our runners to continue to grow and take steps forward towards their goals.  5 PR's and 4 Season Bests, as well as PR's by all three of our runners that were in the Middle School at the 2 mile distance, lead the improvements, with many runners being mere seconds away from a Season or all-time best time!

Ruby continued her solid start to the season with another top 10 performance, finishing in 6th place, helping the girls team to improve to 7th place out of the 9 scoring teams. Dagi continued his improvements, finishing in the top 20 with Josh finishing in 29th as our only 2 Varsity Boys.  We decided to run most of our boys team in JV to give all of the 9th and 10th graders on our team a chance to race together and compete against others closer to their age and current levels and it showed.  Tate raced to win and held onto 4th and Josey finished in a solid 15th place to help the JV Boys to a 4th place team finish out of the 10 teams racing.  Emmy led the 4 JV girls as they all raced close together and all 4 finishing within 30 seconds.

Our results are posted on the right side of the blog as well as a 2025 Season Bests list that I will update after every meet.

Next up is the Chisago Lakes Invite for our JV/MS runners on Tuesday and the Roy Griak Invite on Saturday, Sep 20th.  Information and who will be in which race will be posted this weekend.

Thanks to all that came out to watch yesterday!  It was a fun race!
Denny

Week of September 8/Waconia Wildcat Invite

Below is information for the week to come.  Practices will continue with weight training for the high school runners at 2:25 and then the running portion will begin at 3:15 when the middle school runners get there. 

We will be going to a new meet for us, the Wildcat Invite at Crown College on Thursday.  There is a link to the information that Waconia has sent to us, but there are also directions as well as who will be running in which race.  We will be doing a change with our boys since the majority of them are 9th or 10th graders, young in racing and close together in time.  We will be running our only 2 seniors on Varsity, our top two runners, and the rest of the high schoolers in the JV race.  We want to build their confidence, to not only make us stronger for this season, but start building for next year as well.  Plus, we can honestly say we have 9 of them that are trying to fill 8 spots for the Griak Invite next week, and would like for them to compete and race together for those spots this week.  

The bus will be leaving at 2:00 Thursday.  The meet will get done earlier than last week, so it should not be as late of a night.  However, if you need to bring your runner home after their race, please let me know in advance.

Schedule: * UPDATED SCHEDULE (9/10/25)

4:00pm Middle School Race 2mi (Boys & Girls Combined) 

4:30pm Jr. Varsity Boys 5K
5:00pm Jr. Varsity Girls 5K
5:30pm Varsity Boys 5K  (up to 7 athletes)
6:00pm Varsity Girls 5K (up to 7 athletes)

Meet Information:

https://www.runwaconia.com/wildcatinvite

Directions:

Waconia Invitational: Crown College, 8700 College View Dr, Saint Bonifacius, 55375.  Highway 10 east to Hwy 610 and continue to Hwy 169 South.  Take 169 South to I94 West and follow to I494 South.  Follow on I494 to MN Hwy 7 West and continue to Saint Bonifacius.  Take a left onto Main St (CR 92) and continue for about 1.1 miles to the college entrance and take a left on to College View Dr.

Wildcat Invite @ Crown College, September 11, 2025
Girls	Boys
Varsity	Varsity
Ruby Demmer	Dagi Alemu
Josy Sinigaglia	Josh Hyatt
Mackenzie Reiland
Emily Bornes	JV
Ella LaGree	Tate Burnett
Faith Kue	Josey Jacobs
	Nixon Glenn
JV	Truman Smith
Emmy Fuller	John Vandagriff
Alexa Sabatke	Cullen Jayasekera
Jessika Larson	Mohammed Mustafa
Nyah Fruth	Ben Moline
	Elijah Post
	Xavier Pantoja
Junior High Race (2 miles)	Zach Reiland
Vera Lee	Avalyn Nagan
	Kaiden Castillo
	Junior High Race (2 miles)
	Vincent Congdon
	Max Kirkpatrick

Any questions, please let me know,

Thanks,
Denny

Bauman/Rovn Results

A tough course and conditions and weather that were getting wetter as the evening progressed didn't stop the runners from solid progress and improvements last night at the Bauman/Rovn Invite at Gail Woods.  The team accumulated 21 PR's or Season bests out of the 25 who ran in the 5K races, with the our 3 middle school runners also running paces that were faster than they had in the past.  There was a lot of positive energy with the team, before, during and after the races, something as coaches we like to see and feel will make it easier helping them all get stronger for the rest of the season.

Top overall performer on the day went to Ruby who finished an impressive 8th place in the Girls Varsity race, to help the girls finish in 14th out of the 15 scoring teams.  Dagi was the top Varsity Boy in 54th place to lead the Boys to 14th out of the 16 scoring teams.  Ben and Eli finished together to top our Boys JV runners as Emmy improved from a week a go to be the first Girls JV runner.

Thanks to all of the family and friends who came to support the runners and enjoyed the rain with us!! Next up is the Waconia Invite at Crown College next Thursday, Sep. 11.

Thanks,
Denny

Bauman/Rovn Invitational Information

Below is the team roster for Thursday's Bauman/Rovn Invite as well as the start times for each race and Directions.  Please note that parking is tight, so please give yourself plenty of time to get there before the races start, but also consider car pooling if possible.

If there are any questions, please let me know,
Thanks
Denny

Bauman/Rovn Invitational: Gail Woods: 7210 County Rd 110 W, Minnetrista, 55364.  Highway 10 east to Hwy 610 and continue to Hwy 169 South.  Take 169 South to I94 West and follow to I494 South. Follow to Hwy 12 West, then exit onto Shoreline Dr, which is actually County Road 15, and continue going west.  Shoreline Dr will take you in and around Lake Minnetonka, and continue to Mound, where you will take a left onto Bartlett Blvd/County Rd 110W The park entrance will be a couple of miles after you take a left, on the right side of the road.  The WRA Park will be on the left side of CR 110W.  There is limited parking at Gail Woods, so consider parking at WRA Park, near the park.  

Bus Leaves @ 1:45

JV Boys @ 4:00, Girls @ 4:30

Varsity Boys @ 5:10, Girls @ 5:35

MS (1.8K) Boys @ 6:05, Girls @ 6:30

Live Results will be found on Wayzata Results

NO DOGS ALLOWED AT GALE WOODS FARMS.

Bauman Rovn Invite @ Gail Woods, September 4, 2025
Girls	Boys
Varsity	Varsity
Ruby Demmer	Dagi Alemu
Josy Sinigaglia	Josh Hyatt
Mackenzie Reiland	Tate Burnett
Faith Kue	Josey Jacobs
Emily Bornes	John Vandagriff
Ella LaGree	Cullen Jayasekera
	Truman Smith
JV	Nixon Glenn
Jessika Larson	Mohammed Mustafa
Emmy Fuller	JV
Alexa Sabatke	Ben Moline
Nyah Fruth	Elijah Post
Genavive Kostuck	Xavier Pantoja
	Zach Reiland
Junior High Race (1.8 Miles)	Kaiden Castillo
Vera Lee	Avalyn Nagan
	Junior High Race (1.8 Miles)
	Vincent Congdon
	Max Kirkpatrick