Drietz, Stoks, Duis are All-State

The five Canby/Minneota cross country runners that qualified for the state meet this past Thursday all performed admirably.
Grace Drietz, Braelyn Merritt and Claire Stoks competed in the girls' state run, while Kolton Duis and Zach Ourada ran in the boys' state race.
"These five worked hard this season and pushed themselves to get to this point," said C/M coach Allyson Pesek. "As coaches, our biggest advice for the day was to take it all in and enjoy the experience. After the races were done, we couldn’t have been more proud."
Drietz, a senior running in her fourth state meet, finished 11th in the girls' race in 19:30.15 at the St. Olaf College campus in Northfield.
"This was my last high school cross country race and I wanted to end my season with a great race and that's what I did," Drietz said. "I ran hard and left it all on the course."
Stoks, a freshman in her first state meet, was 20th in a time of 19:58.65.
"I really loved the experience of getting to go to state," Stoks said. "I really liked the course, especially when we were out on the grassy field. I was very happy with my overall race and time."

Duis, a sophomore, placed 25th in his first state meet in a time of 17:11.84.
"The environment of the race was very loud and exciting," Duis said. "The race itself was probably the best one I have ever ran because of the amount of competition and the beautiful course."
Drietz, Stoks and Duis all earned All-State honors for finishing in the top 25 in their respective races.
Ourada, a sophomore, just missed earning All-State, finishing 26th in 17:11.88. Merritt, a sophomore, also was close in finishing 30th in the girls' race in 20:12.52.
"We brought five runners to state and all five finished in the top 30 out of 160 runners in each race," said Pesek. "That's totally awesome."
Nova Classical Academy won the boys' race with 122 points. Perham finished second with 128 points and Northern Nighthawks was third with 160.
Jakob McCleary of Perham was the Class A boys' champion in 16:09.64.
Staples-Motley won the girls' title with 108 points, edging Perham which had 109. Luverne was third with 117.
Amanda Overgaauw of Murray County Central was the individual girls' champion in 18:09.13.