Not since Danny (’08) and Laura (’09) Docherty qualified for the State Meet in 2007 have the Raiders sent a member of both the boys’ and the girls’ team to St. Olaf to run in the big race. This season Dillon Diekmann (’17) and Althea Gutzmann (’17) qualified out of Section 4AA for the State Meet, which was held Saturday, November 5, 2017.

First to run for the Raiders was Diekmann, now in his second appearance at this meet. However now, he came in better prepared mentally and physically. He was confident in his ability to race with this group. So, when it came time to push he was ready and gave his best effort. He finished ahead of athletes who bested him two week prior at the conference race. His 35th place finish was 33 places better than last year and his time of 16:35 was a 12 second improvement as well.

This also marks a return to the State Meet for the girls’ team. While it was Gutzmann’s first appearance in the Cross Country pinnacle race, she is not stranger to the State Meet arena where she has competed twice in Track and Field running on the 4 x 400m relay. Going into the race she was calm and collected, focused on what she wanted to do. Over the course of the race she pushed herself as she ran with the elite pack of runners. In the end she would finish 98th place in a time of 20:28, faster than her previous time at St. Olaf this season by 50 seconds.