Edina sports are at it again, as both our Boys’ and Girls’ Cross Country Teams are headed to Nike Cross Nationals. While the Girls’ Team won state, the Boys’ Team didn’t make it there. However, both teams are in the Nike sponsored league that contains Heartland regionals and nationals in Portland. The teams are heading to Portland, Oregon on December 3rd for their races on the 5th. The girls running for Edina will be: Maria Rickman, Hannah Mitchell, Emily Kompelien, Brynn LiaBraaten, Tate Sweeney, Ellen O’neill, and Amanda Mosborg. The boys participating are: Sam Thomas, Patrick Roos, Jack Manderscheid, Owen Smalley, Max Manly, Zach Miller, and Noah Chestler.

Looking back on the season and seeing how far they have come, Zephyrus asked some of these participants for the year’s highlights and excitements regarding making it all the way to nationals.

“We have worked our butts off this year and have had an amazing team ethic because of it. Running is not an individual sport, we wouldn’t be able to do this without each other. We are all so excited for this opportunity, especially being able to do it together,” said junior Brynn LiaBraaten.

“The best moments of the season have definitely been seeing the results after state and regionals, both times we were so overjoyed that many of us cried! The team is the closest it has ever been and our coach Matt Gabrielson is really organized and detailed which makes for a really amazing team dynamic,” said junior Amanda Mosborg.

“Our goal for nationals this year is to be in the top ten teams like the last two years, but hopefully is to do better than 9th place in order to inch up as a team. Most of the season’s highlights came from regionals in Sioux Falls, South Dakota where many runners got their personal bests, I even set a new school record for Edina,” said junior Patrick Roos.

“As a team we always focus on our training. If as a team we have a good or bad race we don’t let it get to our heads, we just focus on what we need to do to get even better,” said junior Owen Smalley.

Best of luck to Edina’s Cross Country teams at nationals!