It has been an exciting season of cross country running for Carlton's Lindsey Dahl-Holm. A week ago, the Carlton freshman was the top local runner in the Section 7A meet held in Cloquet. On Saturday, Dahl-Holm ran the fastest time of her career, which was good enough to take 17th place in the Minnesota State High School Girl's Cross Country Meet at St. Olaf College in Northfield.
"[Dahl-Holm] ran well at state. She started off the race smart by running about 5 minutes 57 seconds for the first mile," said Carlton coach James Mullenix. "She then ran tough in the middle of the race to pick up a few more places along the way. In the end, she ran a 25-second personal best to finish in a time of 15:20.3."
The top Class A runner was Linda Keller of Paynesville, Minn., who ran a time of 14:38.2, while Kaylz Woltz of Chatfield, Minn., was second with a time of 14:42.8.
"It was a good showing considering she moved up 10 places from 27th to 17th when only two of the top 30 athletes from last season graduated," mentioned Mullenix. "Overall, this season it appears as if [Dahl-Holm] was more motivated and enjoyed cross country a little more than in the past."
Dahl-Holm was the top northern Minnesota runner in the state meet. Her closest competition came from Esko's Kallyn Knutson who finished 29th in a time of 15:34.2.
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"It would be a great thing for her to take advantage of her talent and do the work it will take her to get to the next level of being a state contender," commented Mullenix. "It would not only be good for her, but good for her team and school to see her succeed, not only because she is gifted, but because she worked for it. Hopefully the team as a whole will be inspired enough to decide it is fun to work together toward a loftier goal."
The Class A team event was won by Adrian, with Perham finishing second and Holy Family Catholic taking third. Esko finished 14th in the team competition.
