Boys X-Country: A nice run

Justin Hyytinen Missota Conference champion, Academic All-State

Like the courses they ran the the Tigers experienced their ups and downs this season but according to coach Lisa Lippold the bottom line showed another successful season.

"Overall, it was a good year," she said. "In the three years I have been coaching the runners have continued to get stronger and faster which is  what you want to see. We are still going to set our goals high and we'll get there soon."

Eleven runners earned varsity letter this season, including a trio of seniors: Sean Dougherty, Trent Kortenbusch and Hunter Sevenich.

Dougherty, who lopped more than a minute off his previous best time was named the team's most improved runner at Thursday night's post-season banquet. Kortenbusch received the Coaches' Award for attitude and work ethic.

"Trent made it to every Saturday practice and helped out with the younger runners," Lippold said. "His goal was to get under 19:00 and he did it in his last meet."

Junior Justin Hyytinen led the list of other letterwinners that also included junior Matt Anderson; sophomores Alex Hart, Derek Cole, Josh Grimm, Ryan Newton, Devon Webb and Jackson Schneider.

Hyytinen, the team's Most Valuable Runner, had another big year, highlighted by his becoming just the third Tiger ever to reign as Missota Conference individual champion. He made the all-Missota team for the second straight season, finished runner-up at the Section 1AA Championships and ran in the state meet for the second year in a row.

Alex Hart All-Missota Conference

Hart also had a stellar year, finishing 12th at the conference meet to earn a spot on the elite all-Missota team. Cole, in his first year out for the sport, was named Rookie of the Year.

The Tigers also excelled in the classroom. Their varsity lineup compiled a 3.9 (on a 4.0 scale) grade point average and earned the Gold Academic Award form the State Coaches Association. Hyytinen won Academic All-State individual honors.

"We had almost everyone run a personal record time this year," Lippold said. "They saw how their summer training paid off...We also had a lot more team bonding this year."

Lippold said the only regrets from the 2013 season came in the form of a disappointing sixth place finish at the Missota Conference Championships and seeing a few of her runners report to pre-season drills with fewer off-season training miles under their belts than expected.

"Both Heidi (girls coach Revels) are looking at how to strengthen our summer training even more," she said.

Lippold said she doesn't see next year's move to the South Suburban Conference as a major obstacle for her team.

"We run against almost all of those teams anyway," she said. "We are aware of what the other teams are capable of and that is going to drive us to work even harder....I'm already excited about getting back at it next year."