Gammon-Deering wins; Dean places third

ST. CLOUD - Manon Gammon-Deering captured girls' individual medalist honors, spurring the Little Falls Flyers girls' team to a fourth-place finish Tuesday at the St. Cloud Tech Invite.

Brainerd's Jimmy Dean finished third in the boys' event, followed by Chris Knutson (eighth) and Riley Nelsen (12th) as the Warriors placed fourth.

"The top three (boys) ran very well," Warriors coach Dave Herath said. "To have our third guy finish 12th out of 83 runners was very nice, but our best performance came from Alek Rudstrom with an 18:04. It was a really nice run for him."

Anna Gessell, Megan Holmes and Michaela Quast earned top-20 honors for the Brainerd Warrior girls, who came in fifth.

"On the girls' side, we're very happy with the results, particularly the top three," Herath said. "Gessell had a very nice race, her best time of the year, and Megan Homes finished with her best race so far.

"We're heading in the right direction. We had a few girls that weren't able to run today for various reasons who we'll get back and they'll do really well the rest of the way."

Gammon-Deering was joined in the top 20 by teammate Chelsea Rutz.

Eli Ploof was the top Flyer in the boys' race in 29th place and the Flyers took 10th as a team.

Boys' team scores: 1-Moorhead 45, 2-Willmar 75, 3-St. Cloud Cathedral 105, 4-Brainerd 108, 5-Bemidji 142, 6-Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 153, 7-St. Cloud Tech 187, 8-Hibbing 195, 9-Duluth East 204, 10-Little Falls 262, 11-St. Cloud Apollo 288, 12-Sauk Rapids 342

Individual winner: Lukas Gemar (Moor) 16:07

Brainerd results: 3-Jimmy Dean 16:39, 8-Chris Knutson 16:51, 12-Riley Nelsen 17:10, 36-Alek Rudstrom 18:04, 49-James McLean 18:45, 50-Jeffrey Emery 18:46, 52-Jack Hegarty 18:48

Little Falls results: 29-Eli Plof 17:47, 53-Austin Gessell 18:49, 57-Stepen Luing 18:54, 59-William Marvin 18:56, 64-Alex Kresha 19:21, 65-Brett Fellbaum 19:29, 72-Mathew Massmann 19:58

Girls' team scores: 1-Moorhead 40, 2-Willmar 99, 3-St. Cloud Cathedral 102, 4-Little Falls 113, 5-Brainerd 116, 6-Duluth East 179, 7-Hibbing 183, 8-Bemidji 209, 9-Rocori 226, 10-St. Cloud Apollo 226

Individual winner: Manon Gammon-Deering (LF) 15:16

Brainerd results: 9-Anna Gessell 15:55, 14-Megan Holmes 16:12, 17-Michaela Quast 16:14, 36-Sarah Fairbanks 17:04, 40-Gretchen Kletscher 17:22

Little Falls results: 16-Chelsea Rutz 16:13, 24-Maria Hauer 16:33, Mattia Henrickson 16:47, 45-Laura Moe 17:37, 49-Lauren Zimny 17:52, 72-Maggie Moe 19:52

Next: Brainerd, Little Falls in Central Lakes Conference meet 3:25 p.m. Tuesday at Willmar.