Wayzata didn't 'overthink' it, ran to potential

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

 
To make sense of Wayzata's girls team championship on Saturday it's important to note that there are nordic skiers on this team.

 
Wayzata crushed the Minnesota and NXN Heartland regional meets and were certainly on a short of list of national contenders.

But on Saturday, flying slightly under the radar and feeling at home on frozen ground and bone-chilling wind, Wayzata became the first team from somewhere besides New York state to win the girls championship.

"Last year we were happy to be here," coach Dave Emmans said. "This year, we went in knowing that we could possibly do better. But we didn't overthink this thing. We went out and had fun and embraced the day."

Wayzata put all seven of its runners ahead of runner-up Fayetteville-Manlius' fourth. And those sixth and seventh runners were important in a tightly competitive team race.

Wayzata scored 108 points and seven-time champ F-M scored 120. Davis (157), Carmel (182), Monarch (211), Fort Collins (212) and Unionville (214) finished in the top seven.
Anna French was eighth overall and scored four points for her team. Even before Wayzata had been announced as the winner there was genuine exctiement that they were somewhere close.

"It almost doesn't matter if we won or not because we all just did our best," French said. "For the four seniors on this team it's our last race. It's really cool to see us come out here and race our best."

After Nike meet officials posted the 4K split showing that F-M held a slight lead, Wayzata's group finished with a rush.

French 17:44. Annika Lerdall 18:31. Mary Franke 18:40. Michaela Keller-Miller 18:41. Alayna Sonnesyn 18:47. McKenna Evans 18:48. Annika Halverson 18:49.

And now, all of them, part of NXN history.

My MN heart could not be prouder. Wayzata girls team are #nxn champions. They believed. YOU BETCHA!! #werunxc

— Kara Goucher (@karagoucher) December 7, 2013