Dean third, Knutson sixth for Warrior boys

LITTLE FALLS - Brainerd's Jimmy Dean placed third in the boys' race and Manon Gamon-Deering of Little Falls in 13th place was the fastest area girl in the Myron Ahle Lucky Lindy Invite Thursday.

Dean completed the course in 16:50. He finished behind defending state champion and top-ranked Lukas Gemar of Moorhead and fifth-ranked Jake Autio of St. Michael-Albertville.

"Jimmy ran very well, he ran smart," Warriors coach Dave Herath said. "It was a very fast pace in some really hot weather. I bet he was 25th off the line and slowly worked his way up and solidified himself in third. A little after the mile mark he took charge. He was gaining a little on (Autio) through much of the race."

Chris Knutson (16:59) was sixth for the Brainerd boys, who finished ninth as a team.

"Chris had a nice race," Herath said. "His time was 20 seconds faster than he ran there last year in much more miserable conditions (Thursday). It was nice for him to break 17 minutes. He was only two seconds out of fourth. There was some tight running. We're still looking to form a pack to where Chris is.

"Jack Hegarty ran a nice race. He didn't run a whole lot of varsity last year but dropped quite a bit of time from last year."

Staples-Motley boys' team placed 12th and was led by Gunner Johnson's 11th-place finish.

Little Falls boys' team was 14th, led by Preston Zimny in eighth.

In the girls' meet Courtney Wing led Brainerd with a 17th-place finish and the Warriors placed seventh.

"Anna Gessell was running right up there and had some hip pain," Herath said. "The directions were if her hip started hurting she had to stop. She said she felt great up to that point.

"Megan Holmes had some low-iron stuff and wasn't up to where she'd like to be. The girls were a little disappointed. If you take the teams not in our section out of the meet we're in fourth place running short-handed.

"Rebecca Yeh ran a strong race, about half a minute faster than last year. Probably the surprise of the day was Sarah Fairbanks. She raced varsity for the first time and dropped half a minute from last Friday's race. Courtney had a solid race too."

Katie Stone was the fastest runner for Staples-Motley girls' team, which placed 16th.

Boys' team scores (20 total teams): 1-Moorhead 68, 2-Perham 95, 3-Hopkins 134, 4-Alexandria 155, 5-St. Michael-Albertville 197, 9-Brainerd 231, 12-Staples-Motley 268, 14-Little Falls 299

Individual winner: Lukas Gemar (Mor) 16:14.0

Brainerd results: 3-Jimmy Dean 16:50, 6-Chris Knutson 16:59, 53-Riley Nelson 18:15, 83-Jeffrey Emery 18:53, 86-Alek Rudstrom 19:03, 88-Jack Hegarty 19:05

Little Falls results: 8-Preston Zimny 17:06, 26-Ricky Devine 17:42, 52-Zack Clark 18:15, 105-Austin Gessell 19:31, 108-Dillon Kifer 19:42, 117-Alex Kresha 20:14, 120-William Marvin 20:19

Staples-Motley results: 11-Gunner Johnson 17:10, 34-Jordan Bendson 17:52, 64-Josh Freese 18:30, 77-Isaac Fuhrman 18:48, 82-Justin Ziegler 18:53, 85-Blake Miller 18:57

Girls' team scores (20 total teams): 1-Moorhead 102, 2-Hopkins 106, 3-Grand Rapids 110, 4-Perham 118, 5-Monticello 125, 7-Brainerd 252, 10-Little Falls 300, 16-Staples-Motley 361

Individual winner: Jamie Piepenberg (Alex) 14:32.0

Brainerd results: 17-Courtney Wing 16:03, 40-Rebecca Yeh 16:31, 62-Gretchen Kletscher 16:56, 66-Megan Holmes 17:07, 67-Sarah Fairbanks 17:11, 77-Michaela Quast 17:32

Little Falls results: 13-Manon Gammon-Deering 15:47, 56-Maria Hauer 16:52, 58-Chelsea Rutz 16:53, 72-Mattia Hendrickson 17:25, 101-Kallie Baumgartner 18:28

Staples-Motley results: 31-Katie Stone 16:23, 44-Emma Pogreba 16:35, 51-Kaytlin Roth 16:45, 114-Tayah Smith 19:14, 131-Jenna Ziegler 19:40

Next: Brainerd at Pierz Invite 4:15 p.m. Monday; Little Falls at Rocori Invite 4:15 p.m. Thursday; Staples-Motley at Bagley Invite 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.