Tomlinson earns state CC berth, Trojan boys finish 8th
New Prague's Preston Tomlinson took sixth place at the Section 2AA Cross Country meet Thursday, Oct. 23, earning a spot in Saturday's State Class AA meet Saturday, Nov. 1, at St. Olaf College in Northfield.
Tomlinson, a senior, led a strong contingent of Trojan runners that placed eighth in the section meet.
Buffalo senior Zach Mellon won the meet in a time of 16 minutes, 2.3 seconds. Tomlinson's sixth place time was 16:41.4.
Chaska and Willmar earned the two team berths. The Hawks had five runners place among the top 17 and totaled 58 points. Willmar had 122 points for second place. Other teams were Buffalo (124), Mankato West (138), Orono (159), Mankato East (162), Mound Westonka (180), New Prague (191), Hutchinson (214), Shakopee (223), Dassel-Cokato (232), Delano (279), Marshall (370), Waconia (376) and Minnesota Valley Lutheran/New Ulm (446).
The experienced Trojan squad ran five seniors and two freshmen. New Prague's top three runners were all seniors. Besides Tomlinson, Drew Revak was 19th and Neal Lambrecht 33rd, freshman John Geiger was 56th, followed by senior Marty Herrmann (77th), senior Tyler Starkey (86th) and freshman Alex Hendricks (95th).
New Prague was 10th of 12 teams in the JV race. Kyle Strand was the top Trojan, finishing 48th, followed by Ashton Hlavac (53rd), Andy Roach (58th) and Andrew Salaba (61st).
