BAXTER — Adam Cady made his Brainerd varsity debut one to remember Friday, Sept. 4.
The junior placed fourth in the Run for the Melon Invite at Forestview Middle School to lead the Warriors to second place in the season-opening event.
Alexandria collected the top three places and won the team title. Cardinals senior Jacob Kleven won the event in 17:55.4.
Cady posted an 18:12.9 in his first cross-country running event as a Warrior.
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“Coach (Dave) Herath said for us to all try and stick together for at least the first two miles so we could get all of our points in together,” Cady said. “Ethan Klisch, a senior, and I stuck together for the first 3200 and then I just slowly started to inch my way ahead. I started following an Alex runner.
“Klisch was with me, but he wasn’t really following the Alex guys so I just felt like I wanted to place as high as I could so I just followed the Alex kid, but he outkicked me at that end. That’s something I need to work on.”
Cady placed fourth in front of Klisch, a returning state meet participant, who ran an 18:16.4 for fifth place.
Cady wasn’t expecting a top-five finish. He said he didn’t know what to expect with a new starting system, a new course layout and different format from years past. Cady figured his toughest competition was going to be from his own teammates.
“We’re all really competitive,” Cady said. “On a recovery day we’ll still be going a seven-minute pace because nobody wants to lose. That’s good. We’re pushing for state this year and we’re really training hard at practice. Our second guy was injured today, but he’ll be back and we’ll be strong. Yeah, we’re hoping to make a state run.”
Thomas Ruhl was the injured Warrior. He was also Brainerd’s top finisher at last year’s Run for the Melon. Herath said if it was a section meet Ruhl might have run, but for a season-opener, they held him out of the lineup.
Baden Bastian finished seventh with fellow newcomer Ryann Cady finishing ninth. Gus Duinink placed 11th to round out Brainerd’s 37 team points.
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“We’ve got quite a pack that’s been training together and Adam has been in that pack,” Herath said. “These meets where we’re hosting I don’t get to see much of it, but the goal was to stay as a group and the last mile, if someone was feeling it they could go for it. It looked like Ethan and Adam, from what I was seeing, took off from the rest of the pack and it came down to a sprint.
“I didn’t know what to expect from Adam, but he sure looked strong to me.”
Braden Capelle placed 12th followed by Atticus Osborne in 13th and Jackson Dwyer in 16th place.
Depth will not be a problem for the Warriors as Steve Selisker won the junior varsity event with a time that would have put him 13th in the varsity race.
“I think we’re going to have a really strong boys team with a lot of depth,” Herath said. “You look at the JV results and we were close to a perfect score. It will be interesting to see what our final varsity looks like at the end of the year because there are a lot of moving pieces that can happen between now and then.
“I’m very excited for them. It’s a hard-working group. For us to get that first meet in we always tell them that we have a baseline now so let’s go out and keep getting better.”
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Boys results
Team scores: 1-Alexandria 22, 2-Brainerd 37, 3-Sauk Rapids 75
Individual winner: 1-Jacob Kleven (Alexandria) 17:55.4
Brainerd results: 4-Adam Cady 18:12.9, 5-Ethan Klisch 18:16.4, 8-Baden Bastian 18:35.6, 9-Ryann Cady 18:39.6, 11-Gus Duinink 19:02.1, 12-Braden Capelle 19:03.1, 13-Atticus Osborne 19:39.2, 16-Jackson Dwyer 20:05.9
JEREMY MILLSOP may be reached at 218-855-5856 or jeremy.millsop@brainerddispatch.com. Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jeremymillsop.
