Large meet featured 24 schools from across the region

Erika Heibel (Left) Ky Shebeck (right) competed at the large Yellowjackets Harrier Classic in Perham last week. The pair helped the girls team to a 12th place finish.

The Bulldog cross country teams were back in action on Thursday, Oct. 7 in Perham. The Bulldogs competed in the  Perham Yellowjackets Harrier Classic on Thursday against 24 schools. The varsity girls finished in 12th while the boys finished 13th.

The girls were without usual top runner Norah Froslee, but Erika Heibel and Kyleigh Schebeck both stepped up running all-time Bulldog top 10 times. Heibel’s time of 21:19 is now fourth on that list and Shebeck’s time of 21:21 is fifth. 

Laney Frost ran a season best time of 23:08, and Raeanne Frost just missed a season best with her time of 23:39. 

Kyle Tierney races near the end of Thursday’s meet in Perham. Tierney took 91st place overall. 

“The girls ran well today,” said head coach Brady Speicher. “We planned on having them get out a little quicker than normal and they executed a perfect racing strategy. Erika and Ky ran together and both were rewarded with new personal bests.” 

The boys were led by a duo of seniors, Isaac Scherfenberg with a season’s best of 18:08, and Blake Alonzo also with a season’s best of 18:48. Talyn Setterholm finished with a personal best of 19:10, Jonas Hegemeister 19:23 and Kyle Tierny with a personal best of 19:31 rounded out the scoring 5. 

“We ran today without two of our top four runners which affected us in the team score, but we are leaving this meet with 16 of our 24 that ran with either a season’s best or personal best. We had a group of 8th graders run their first 5k today and it makes me very excited for their futures on this team,” said Spleicher. “On the varsity side we need to work on finishing races strong, championship season starts soon and we have to have the mentality that nobody gets by us in the last 800 meters of a race. The guys set a goal of repeating as conference champions and we definitely have a chance of doing that but it is not just going to happen because we are wishing for it, we have two more weeks of hard work to put in.”

The Bulldogs will compete in two different meets next week. On Monday the junior high will run the conference meet and on Tuesday the varsity will be at Brandon-Evanvsille.

Bulldog results: Male varsity: 48. Isaac Scherfenberg 18:08.24, 67. Blake Alonzo 18:49.10, 76. Talyn Setterholm 19:23.19, 83. Jonas Hagemeister 19:23.19, 91. Kyle Tierney 19:31.18, 87. Noah Mansker 20:23.81, 102. Nathan Russ 20:31.50; Female varsity: 37. Erika Heibel 21:18.15, Kyleigh Shebeck 21:21.20, 72. Laney Frost 23:08.47, 78. Raeanne Frost 23:39.25, 96. Ally Goodman 26:14.13