Good Signs for the Lakers
The Prior Lake boys cross country team had a strong showing at the South Suburban Conference Championships Oct. 10 in Eagan.
The Lakers had three runners in the top 11 en route to a third-place finish in the team standings. Sophomore Colin Dwyer led the way for Prior Lake finishing third overall.
Eleventh-ranked Shakopee came way with the team title with 72 points, six better than No. 10 Rosemount and 13 more than the Lakers.
Lakeville North was fourth (115), followed by Burnsville (144), Apple Valley (152), Farmington (172), Lakeville South (186), Eastview (188) and Eagan (198).
Up next for the Lakers is the Section 3AA meet, which is Oct. 23 at Valleywood Golf Course in Apple Valley. The top-two teams qualify for state, along with the top-10 individual finishers not on the two advancing squads.
Last year, the Lakers were third at sections. This time, they expect to be at least one spot higher. Rosemount is the favorite, but last year's runner-up Burnsville doesn't look like it has the depth to keep up with Prior Lake at sections.
So this could be the Lakers year to get to state? The program hasn't been there as a team since 1993.
Meanwhile, Dwyer ran the 5,000-meter SSC course in 16:41.70, which was 17 seconds behind the winning time of Burnsville senior Faysal Mahmoud and eight seconds behind the runner-up finisher of Rosemount senior Alexander Behre.
Junior Trenton Galloway ended up sixth overall (16:49.0) for the Lakers, while senior Ben Garrison was 11th (17:11.60). They both qualified for state individually for Prior Lake last year with Galloway taking 21st and Garrison finishing 104th.
Senior Shawn Doherty ended up 23rd for the Lakers at the conference meet (17:24.40), while sophomore Thomas Vallez was 43rd (18:01.0).
Other finishers: sophomore Noah Torvik (55th, 18:13.40) and senior Aiden Resh (58th, 18:15.70).
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