Cross Country: Raptors' Ness qualifies for state meet

• Bailey Ness

East Ridge eighth-grader Bailey Ness qualified for the Class 2A Cross Country meet with a fifth-place finish at the Section 4AA meet held Wednesday, Oct. 28 at Goodrich Golf Course in Maplewood.

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East Ridge eighth-grader Bailey Ness qualified for the Class 2A state cross country meet with a fifth-place finish at the Section 4AA meet held Wednesday, Oct. 28 at Goodrich Golf Course in Maplewood. The top 10 individual runners in the boys and girls race earn trips to state.

Ness ran a time of 15:19.30 in the race. Roseville freshman Allison Cordes won the meet with a time of 15:07.45. For Ness, it will be her first state meet. Last year, as a seventh-grader, she was the first alternate for the state-entrant Woodbury girls cross country team.

As a team, the East Ridge girls finished in sixth place in the 14-team field. The East Ridge boys earned 12th place out of 14 teams. The top two boys and girls team at the section meet earn a trip to state. On the girls side, Suburban East Conference champion Roseville took first with SEC foe Woodbury taking second by edging out another SEC team - White Bear Lake - by one point.

For the boys, the SEC's Stillwater finished first and White Bear Lake came in second place.

For the East Ridge girls, in addition to Ness, eighth-graders Abbey Beissler and Erin Kenny and freshmen Taylor Jackson and Maddi Zavoral rounded out the top five, finishing in 32nd, 35th, 36th and 53rd, respectively.

In the boys race, East Ridge freshman Nate Roese came one spot shy of a state meet berth, coming in 11th place with a time of 17:00.97 - just a touch over 10 seconds back of White Bear Lake senior Trevor Bartz, who took the last state spot. Woodbury senior Marty Joyce turned in the meet's top time with a finish of 16:22.92.

In addition to Roese, East Ridge's Quint Larson, eighth-grader Sam Scholz, and freshmen Eric Schmidt and Alex Slette rounded out the Raptors' top five finishing in 77th, 82nd, 84th and 90th, respectively.

The state cross country meet will take place Saturday, Nov. 7 at St. Olaf College in Northfield.

See the full story, results and additional photos in the Nov. 4 issue of the Bulletin

Tags: cross country, east ridge, cottage grove, sports, raptors, woodbury