Eagles' Schwartz duels for first, MVL boys take third

By BENJAMIN TOMCZAK

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- If you weren't at the Brown Country Fairgrounds Thursday you definitely missed something incredible.

You missed New Ulm's Kyle Schwartz dueling Marshall's Salah Mohamed for 5000 meters before edging him by two seconds at the finish line.

You missed Minnesota Valley Lutheran senior Phil Moldenhauer's first race since a broken foot kept him out his entire junior season.

You missed Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop's Neil Deckers taking first in his first ever race.

You missed all this by not coming out to the 32nd running of the New Ulm Invitational.

Marshall won the boys team championship with a score of 42, followed by Fairmont (57) and MVL (74). New Ulm finished fifth with 129 points.

On the girls side, the title was captured by Fairmont (45) with Marshall a distant second at 77. St. Mary's finished fifth with 144 and MVL sixth with 155. New Ulm finished eighth with a team score of 193.

Redwood Valley, Mankato East, Worthington, Martin County West and GFW also brought runners.

The boys 5K was highlighted by the Schwartz/Mohamed duel. The two runners distanced themselves from the pack early and traded leads throughout. Schwartz finally took control in the latter half of the race, pulling away from the Tiger before a gripping sprint to the finish line.

Eagle coach Jim Pickus was more than pleased with Schwartz's performance and his time of 17:24.

"It's what we want to see in him, that he's getting stronger and fighting off better runners."

Greg Jamison was the next highest Eagle, running a 19:22 for 17th place. Seven seconds behind him was teammate John Witt, finishing 21st.

Pickus also saw some light in the girls race.

Though finishing eighth, the Lady Eagles ran solid times and stayed relatively close, with only 16 places separating the highest and lowest finishers. The highest Eagle finisher was Ashley Hauge, who ran a 19:23 for 32nd place.

"The girls team is improving," Pickus said, "we'll see where we're at down the road."

MVL also made a strong showing in the boys and girls varsity races. Led by Phil Moldenhauer's 11th place finish and 18:48 time, the other four Charger boys (Jeremy Bilitz, Jeremy Costello, Dusty Lendt and Brent Krohn) came in at 12th, 13th, 18th and 20th place and all finished within a 39 second span of time. This was no surprise to Charger coach Megan Johnson.

"We knew they could run as a pack. If they keep running together and staying together, we've got a shot."

If there was a weakness to the MVL attack Thursday, it came in a too quick start. Moldenhauer fell from an early 5th to 11th and the girls were hit by the excitement bug as well, especially sophomores Lawanda Johnson and Beth Windschitl. The two Chargers began right up in the top five, but eventually drifted back to 16th and 18th as Fairmont's Jamie Rooney (1st place; 16:20) and Martin County West's Nichole Nelson (2nd; 16:26) took over and dominated. "Everyone went out too fast," Johnson said. "We'll work on that."

The Knights of St. Mary's were only able to field a complete girls team. The top three girls, all underclassmen, finished within thirty seconds and five places of each other. Julia Eckstein ran in 18:32 and placed 19th, Kyla Hoffmann finished in 23rd with a time of 18:59 and Maria Wennes was 24th at 19:03.

Knight coach Scott Demaris was pleased with the pack running of his harriers.

"Any cross country coach likes to see their kids running in a pack, because they can draw each other along and draw strength from each other."

Perhaps the most feel-good part of the day came from the GFW camp. The Thunderbird cross country program is faced with a rebuilding year after getting cut out of budgeting last year. Thunderbird coach Mark Leitheiser fielded a team that had no clue what a cross country race even was until Thursday.

"They have a lot to learn," Leitheiser said, "but for the most part they thought it was a good experience."

One runner who has less to learn than the rest seems to be Neil Deckers. Running his first race, the junior clocked a 19:45 and won the junior varsity competition.

Other Thunderbirds didn't fare as well, but Leitheiser isn't too concerned.

"The biggest thing we need is more races," he said. And more races they'll get. The Thunderbirds will run at Norwood Young America Tuesday and Maple River Thursday.

New Ulm will head to Hutchinson Thursday and MVL will also run next at Maple River. St. Mary's will be heading to Windom a week from Monday.

Fairmont won the boys junior varsity race with a score of 38 points. Marshall took the girls JV title with 45 points. Notable finishes came from MVL's Lindsay Schultz (18th; 21:02) and St. Mary's Laura Botz (31st; 22:13).