Boys cross country, 2015 state meet recap
Hopkins captures Class AA crown; Mora repeats in Class A;
Wayzata’s Carpenter, La Crescent’s Emery win individual titles
By Tim Leighton
Hopkins and Mora found the winner’s circle again during the 2015 boys cross country state meet
held on the campus of St. Olaf College in Northfield.
Hopkins won the big-school championship with 34 points, 33 fewer than Minneapolis Washburn
which was runner-up with 67. Perennial entrant and state power Stillwater was third with 87.
It is the fifth Class AA championship for the Royals since 1998. The other cross country team
championships won by Hopkins were in 1998, ’99, 2001 and ’02.
Wayzata senior Jaret Carpenter won the individual title in Class AA with a time of 15 minutes,
26.5 seconds for the 5-kilometer course. St. Paul Highland Park’s Micah Mather was runner-up
in 15:28.2 and Stillwater’s Eli Krahn was third in 15:32.3.
Mora won the small-school crown for the second consecutive season. The Mustangs compiled 43
points. Perham was runner-up with 94 points and Annandale was third at 166.
Junior Zack Emery of La Crescent led the pack with a winning time of 16:07.8. Mora’s Michael
Schwinghamer was second in 16:11.1 and Lake City’s Carl Kozlowski was third in 16:17.4.
CLASS AA
Hopkins and Stillwater had to share the second-place trophy in 2014. Both running powers
finished with 87 points, 40 more than Wayzata, the big-school champion.
Moving into the 2015 season, high expectations didn’t include another runner-up finish and the
Royals made sure of that with a dominating performance that produced the school’s fifth state
championship and first since 2002.
The Royals’ top five runners that scored were junior Seth Eliason, senior Owen Hoeft, senior
Jack Henschel, senior Hunter Staack and senior Sam Branson. Six of the Royals’ runners had
previous state meet experience.
“You don’t have to be a varsity runner to really rally behind this and see why it’s so important to
our community,” Hopkins head coach Mike Harris told the Sun Sailor. “And that’s the bottom
line: At Hopkins, we’re really proud. They’ve worked individually, and collectively, as a team to
shine and this is their moment.”
In the individual race, Wayzata’s Jaret Carpenter seized the lead early and didn’t let go until he
was the first to cover the 5,000-meter course. In his shadows, though, were Mather and Krahn,
who couldn’t quite catch him.
Carpenter is the second consecutive Wayzata runner to win the big-school crown. In 2014,
Wayzata’s Connor Olson won the Class AA title and Carpenter was seventh. Olson was cheering
for Carpenter in the 2015 meet at the 4K mark.
CLASS A
There were no nervous moments for the Mora boys cross country team this time around. Unlike
in 2014 when a close finish with Martin County West yielded a sigh of relief followed by
celebratory joy, the Mustangs affirmed their team strength in the early stages of the small-school
race.
There was no doubt this time when Mora recorded 43 points to win a championship for the
second consecutive season. Perham, the 2013 small-school champion, was runner-up with 94. In
2014, Mora edged Martin County West by four points.
In 2015, Mora’s five scoring runners placed within the top 17 places. Leading the way was
Michael Schwinghamer with a second-place finish in the team scoring. Next was Alec Sanbeck
(fourth), followed by John Schwinghamer (ninth), Cole Oslin (12th) and Noah Moravec (17th).
“It was a great day for Mora cross country,” Mustangs head coach Chris Goebel told the
Kanabec County Times. “The kids ran well, and it was a lot of fun. Winning the championship
was a lot of relief. They had been working for this day since last fall. This is a moment that
they’ll never forget when they think about how hard they worked to get to this point.”
The cross country team is the first program at Mora to win consecutive state championships. It
was also the third-ever state title for the Central Minnesota school. In 1996, Mora won the Class
A football crown.
Mora was ranked No. 3 nationally in Division II (schools up to 699 in enrollment) by the High
School Track and Cross Country National coaches Association.
La Crescent’s Zack Emery, a junior, won the individual championship with a time of 16:07.8. He
was on a pace of 5:12 per mile for the 3.1-mile race. Close behind was Mora’s Michael
Schwinghamer, who was four seconds back in 16:11.1.
Emery was seventh overall in the 2014 race and Schwinghamer placed 31st.