Gabe Hinrichs, Ali Weimer Fastest At Yankton Trails

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

For the second week in a row, the boys from Wayzata XC showed that you don't need to have someone up front and in the finish-line photo to win a cross country meet. 

With a 24-second split from scorer 1 to 5, Wayzata carried off the boys team trophy at the Nike Cross Heartland regional in Sioux Falls, S.D. despite not having a finisher in the top 40 of the race. 

Hamza Mohamed's 44th-place overall finish was good for 18 team points (with individuals removed), which put the team slightly behind the curve, but made up for it by putting five in the top 82.

The team also closed well and overtook Nebraska's Wildcat XC in the final mile to win 141 points. Wildcat XC (Millard West) was second with 152 points. Wisconsin's Mequon-Thiensville Highlanders was third with 171 points and Stars of Iowa was fourth with 172. 

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At the front of the race, Nebraska champion Gabe Hinrichs kicked late to get away from Minnesotans Noah Breker and Sam Scott to win the NXR Heartland championship race in 15:00.0. 

Breker, of the Falcon Flyers, was second in 15:05.8. Logan Seger from Saints XC (Kan.) was third in 15:10.1. Scott rebounded from a rough outing at Minnesota state meet and took fourth in 15:10.4. Fellow sophomore Micah Blomker, the Kansas 6A champ, was fifth in 15:11.6. 

Hinrichs placed 140th in the meet when it was last held, two years ago, as a sophomore. 

Edina XC extended its dominace of Minnesota to the entire region with a 97-point performance, defeating Middleton XC (Wisc.) and Highland Park RC (Minn.), who were second and third with 123 and 130 points. 

Edina had scoring advantages at Nos. 3, 4 and 5. 

In the girls race, Minnesota state champion Ali Weimer pulled away late to get away from Wisconsin champion Lauren Pansegrau, 17:03.3 to 17:08.7. Hopkins XC (Minn.) freshman Sydney Drevlow was third in 17:10.7.

'It came down to a footrace and I got lucky today, but they (Pansegrau and Drevlow) were so incredible this could have gone either way," Weimer said. "I didn't know who was going to come out on top."