Thies earns medalist honors

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- Going into Thursday's cross country meet at the Sleepy Eye Golf Course, Sibley East's Eric Thies had one goal he wanted to accomplish: To break the course record.

Thies was just 10 seconds off of breaking the record of 17:01, medaling in 17:11. But overall, he was happy with the way he ran.

"Yeah, I'm happy," Thies said. "I guess I was trying to break the record, but you gotta take what you get I guess."

Thies didn't get the record, but he won the meet by 55 seconds, blowing away the competition. He made it a point to finish strong.

"You want to go out strong in the end," Thies said. "Like the guy who came in second [Lake Crystal/Wellome Memorial-Nicollet's Matt Hoehn], he likes to get you after half, so I wanted to go and try and run him out so he can't come and get me."

Thies, a sophomore, has been to the State track meet twice and was at the State Cross Country meet a year ago. He said his goal is to get back to the state meet and to finish high.

"I want to get back and place in the Top 10 I suppose," Thies said.

He's also ran at the course before, so he knew what to expect.

"It's the same course every time we come here," Thies said. "I don't know -- today was a good day to run though. This course isn't very hilly, so you can run faster."

LCWM-N's Matt Hoehn took second (17:56), followed by Minnesota Valley Lutheran's Jonathan Bauer (18:10), LCWM-N's Andy Chaussee (18:26), and LCWM-N's Dan Chaussee (5th, 18:27).

Thies's teammates Eric Schultz (6th, 18:27), Chad Richards (7th, 18:28), and Andy Gunnink (8th, 18:44) followed. Sleepy Eye St. Mary's-Sleepy Eye-New Ulm Cathedral (9th, 18:56), and LCWM-N's Drew Ingvalson (19:34) rounded out the top 10.

LCWM-N won with 32 points, followed by Sibley East with 39 and SM-SE-NUC with 72. MVL finished fourth with 77 points.

On the girls side, Minnesota Valley Lutheran's Amanda Remmele also had a dominant run, winning in 16:11, 48 seconds ahead of SM-SE-NUC's Allie Betsch (16:59). LCWM-N's Erica Roelofs took third (17:07), MVL's Amanda Dettman placed fourth (17:15) and LCWM-N's Lisa Brown took fifth (17:16).

Dettman said that she focused on latter part of the race and wanted to make her move.

"Usually I've been trying get my last 800 -- to quicken my pace there, and also get my mile time good," Dettmann said.

Dettman said that she has a friendly rivalry with Remmele, but keeping up with her at the actual meets is tough to do.

"In practice, we practice together, so coaches say how I should be up with her, but it's hard," Dettman said.

Remmele said the two were running together, but Dettman told her to go ahead and take off.

"We were going to try to stick together today, and we did for the first mile, but she was like 'go,' because she was getting tired," Remmele said.

Remmele said she was also focused on Betsch and knew she would give her a challenge. She said she was surprised to see Betsch at the meet because Betsch had homecoming coronation that night at Cathedral High School.

Finishing sixth overall was MVL's Alysha Thompson (17:43), followed by SM-SE-NUC's Greta Sieve (16:59), LCWM-N's Hayley Reed (17:54), SM-SE-NUC's Sara Soukup (9th, 18:05), and MVL's Hannah Schoof (10th, 18:09).

"I knew that she was going to be really pumped because her coronation was [last night], and I was like 'you're insane for coming to the meet,'" Remmele said. "I wouldn't come if I was on a homecoming court and it was my coronation tonight."

MVL won the meet with a score of 34, followed by LCWM-N with 39 points and SM-SE-NUC took third with 52 points. Sibley East had incomplete results.

"This year, we've noticed our team can be a really good team," Dettmann said. "We just keep trying to get better."

Jeremy Behnke can be reached at jbehnke@nujournal.com.