Henning freshman takes 45th place at state

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

With the pep band playing behind her, Nora Froslee walked down a student-lined hallway on Friday morning as she prepared for the state cross country meet. 

Just a freshman, Froslee qualified for her first-ever state cross country meet after taking ninth place at the Section 6A meet at Minnewaska Area High School on Oct. 28. 

“I thought I had a chance (to make it to state). I had a good season and have been making good progress,” said Froslee, who is the daughter of Mick and Elizabeth Froslee of Vining. 

After taking 34th place at the section meet last year, Froslee finished in ninth place at the section meet with a time of 20:33.20. She was the top finisher for the girls team, just as she had been almost all season long. This is her third year in cross country.

While Froslee may have surprised quite a few other teams and coaches with her big jump from 34th place last year to a trip to the state meet, Otter Tail Central cross country coach Brady Speicher said Froslee has put in a lot of work in the offseason and continues to push herself on the course to drop her time. 

“I think she surprised her competition and other coaches, but she didn’t surprise her teammates and myself. We see everyday how hard she works and how dedicated she is to becoming the best runners she can be,” he said. “Going into sections if you were looking at the best times from the season, Nora was not supposed to qualify for state, but she went out on the course and wasn’t going to let anything get in her way. I’m beyond excited to see how she will do at the state meet.”

The state cross country meet was held at St. Olaf College in Northfield on Saturday afternoon. Froslee took to the starting line around 12 p.m. and finished in 45th place with a new personal best time of 20:13.3, which also places her second in the program’s all time top 10 list. 

In addition to Froslee, the boys team was led by a freshman as Peter Newark just missed out on advancing to state with an 11th place finish at sections. Speicher said having a pair of freshmen leading the team at the section meet shows that bright days could be ahead for the cross country teams. 

“Nora qualifying for the state meet as a freshman shows that what we are doing as a program is working. OTC as a whole is establishing ourselves as a program that will be competing every year for spots to state,” said Speicher. “To have both our top individuals on the girls and boys teams be freshman shows our underclassmen that it is possible to have success in this sport early on in your career. I hope that upcoming seventh and eighth graders make the connection that hard work will pay off and they will run fast times if they trust the process.”