Drietz third, waltzes into state meet

Grace Drietz has made a career of running away from other runners. But she can't seem to catch Morgan Gehl of Murray County Central.

The petite Gehl wove her magic again Thursday and ran to a Section 3A title in 17:48 with Tenley Nelson of Luverne second and Drietz in third at 18:56.7.

"I enjoy it out there," said Drietz, adding, "She (Gehl) is a good runner." But she reveled at the fact she was going back to state to run, as she did last year.

Along with her will be teammate McKenzie Ruether, a sophomore who finished in 13th place out of 123 runners. "McKenzie took almost a whole minute off of her time on this course from earlier in the month," said Coach Allyson Pesek.

Her time of 20:38 got her into the state meet.

Drietz said she enjoyed the race at Luverne in the mist and cooler temperatures. "I feed off the rain," she said.

Luverne with 51 points and Lac qui Parle Valley with 99 won the right to enter their teams in the state. Canby-Minneota was fifth after Murray County Central and Pipestone with 115 points.

Just missing out on a state berth was seventh grader Braeleyn Merritt in 15th place. "She missed qualifying for state by just one place.  She had a great race and took over a minute off her time from this course earlier in the month (21:57 to 20:45)," said Coach Pesek.

According to Coach Pesek, Merritt helper her team in many ways. Her improvement helped the team score, but also, "Braeyden pushed the other girls but they did not want to get beat by such a young runner," chuckled the coach.

After Drietz, Ruether and Merritt was Faith Traen,who finished in 32nd place at 21:38.3. What probably cost Canby-Minneota a better team finish was the fifth runner dropped quite a bit lower. Kameron King came in 55th, just ahead of Aidyn Bruns ... who had been finishing higher for C-M.

In addition to Ruether, the other individuals qualifying for state were: Gehl, Catherine Buffie of Redwood Valley, Maddie LeSage of Redwood Valley, Carissa Vandcerwall of Ortonville, Gracie Bucher of Windom and and Jonna Strasser of Pipestone.