Edina Runners Finish Strong at State

It was a beautiful day for a run as the Edina High School cross-country teams competed at the Class AA State Meet on Saturday, Nov. 6 at St. Olaf College in Northfield. While not all was well for the Hornets after the day of races, there were still several solid individual efforts.

After a few years of watching the action from the sidelines, Edina's Aldis Inde finally got the chance to run at a state meet. The senior made the most of it in placing seventh out of 153 finishers with a time of 15 minutes, 59 seconds.

"I was pleased with where I finished," Inde said. "It was a great feeling to compete there (at state), it was a dream come true."

One of six seniors who made up the Hornets' state contingent this season, Inde's finish helped Edina to a fifth-place result in the team competition with 148 points — two points in front of sixth-place Andover.

However, the team placement was something of a letdown for Edina. The Hornets traveled to Northfield as the No. 2-ranked team in Class AA, though the squad qualified for state as the runner-up to Wayzata at the Section 6AA championship meet on Friday, Oct. 29.

Unfortunately for Edina, the Trojans would once again finish in front of the Hornets at state, this time claiming the Class AA championship with 61 points — far out-pacing even second-place Moorhead, which claimed 130 points.

Sophomore Will Burke, the lone non-senior to run for the Hornets on the 5,000-meter course at this year's state meet, took 34th in 16:29. He was followed by seniors Sam Leese (16:50) in 70th, Bjorn Thompson (16:51.1) in 71st, Joey O'Connell (16:59) in 83rd, Joseph Hicken (17:03.9) in 91st and Kyle Wagener (17:12.8) in 104th.

The team appearance was Edina's fifth overall and first since 2005, when the Hornets' took fourth-place. Still, for a squad with legitimate title hopes, coming in fifth was disheartening to the senior-laden troupe.

"We were pretty disappointed with our team finish," Inde said. "There's no regrets. We wouldn't do things differently, but it just didn't happen for us."

While the Minnesota State High School League-sanctioned season has come to an end, Inde and his teammates are not done running yet. The Edina XC Club team has a regional meet coming up — the Nike Cross Heartland Championship — on Sunday, Nov. 14 at Yankton Trails Park in Sioux Falls, SD.

A qualifying finish would earn Edina individuals, or even the full club team, a spot in the seventh-annual Nike Cross Nationals on Saturday, Dec. 4 in Portland, OR.

"There's at least one more meet," said Inde, who also runs distance events for the Hornets track and field team and hopes to compete collegiately at an Ivy League institution. "We'll see what happens."

Junior Piper Bain ran her way to a 47th-place finish as Edina's lone representative in on the 4,000-meter course at the girls Class AA run that concluded a full day of races at St. Olaf.

"I thought I raced pretty well," Bain said. "I did better than last year, which was great. "

Bain completed her 2010 race in a time of 15:15, slicing nearly three full seconds off her sophomore effort of 16:17.9 last November.

"It was a real nice day to run," she said. "A little bit windy, but not too hot."

While Bain hopes to qualify for state next autumn, she also wishes for some green-clad company in 2011.

"It would be nice to go again as a senior, but I really do hope our whole team can make it as well," she said. "It would be nice to have some teammates out there with me."

The girls may have not placed among the top 16 teams in the state this season, but coach Kathleen Morgan said they have taken enormous steps toward becoming contenders.

"For the first time, these kids really raced – they had the guts to run a faster first mile and know they'd have something left for the second half," Morgan said. "Last year, we didn't have that competitiveness, that killer instinct, that mental toughness. But they really went after other teams and runners this year."