Last week the New York Mills cross country team began their 2025 season competing in two meets, Staples-Motley on Monday and the meet they hosted on Thursday at Sonnenberg Trails north of NY Mills.

On Monday the Eagles had their first opportunity to run competitively as they ran at the Vintage Golf Course outside Staples. There they all had excellent times for their first meet of the year. 

The sixth grade runners: Chavez Cannon, Layton Meyer, Bryce Kopveiler, Hayden Bleichner and Ella Saewert all placed in the elementary race. 

In the junior high girls’ race, Jemma Goeson placed ninth in the race that had 55 competitors, while Noah Radniecki, Finn Costin and Gus Tumberg all ran very well in their first competitive race. 

For the varsity girls, Audrey Weller took over two minutes off her time for this race last year. 

In the varsity boys’ race, Jacob Thorsrud, Elijah Geiser, Dawson Seelhammer, Heath Hammond and Loren Underdahl all ran well with Geiser taking 34 seconds off his last year’s time and Seelhammer cutting three minutes off his race time last year. 

Thursday morning the Eagles hosted a meet with the NY Mills runners again dong well. 

Jemma Goeson took second place in the JH girls race while Noah Radniecki led the NY Mills boys in the JH boys’ race. 

In the varsity girls’ race Maggy Weller placed fourth and again cut her time for this race. 

In the boys’ varsity race, Seelhammer was the first Eagle to finish and he again cut his time from last year by 3 minutes.

After the week of races, Coach Greg Esala said, “we’ve had a great start to the season. Our runners are working hard and already showing much improvement.. It’s enjoyable to work with athletes who practice hard and do their best.”

This week the Eagles will run in the WDC race held at Whitetail Run Golf course on Tuesday. Next week they head to Ada for a meet on Thursday, Sept. 11.