Great Oak boys step up at Roy Griak; Naperville North girls edge California champs

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Great Oak CA traveled 2,000 miles this weekend to take on some of the best teams in the Midwest and rose up to the challenge on a hot day in Minnesota.

With a heat index above 90, officials contemplated shortening the races from 5,000 meters to two miles before sticking with the original plan. 

Great Oak, accustomed to training in hot weather, ran terrific and the DyeStat preseason No. 4 team walloped No. 2 Wayzata, 50-75. 

Great Oak ran unafraid of the conditions and bolted off the starting line. The Wolfpack had seven runners ahead of Wayzata's first at 1 kilometer, and six in front at one mile. 

The Minnesota powerhouse tried to close but could not overcome the deficit. 

Carlos Carvajal, Gabe Abbes and Jacob Korgan all finished ahead of Wayzata No. 1 Khalid Hussein.

Individually, Derick Peters of West Central SD had a strong performance and ran 15:49.5 for the only sub-16 clocking in the boys gold division race.

On the girls side, Midwest No. 1 Naperville North IL edged California No. 2 Great Oak, 154 to 156.

Naperville North had an advantage up front with its top three going 4-9-19 in the team scoring to Great Oak's 6-17-20. However, Great Oak No. 4 Audrey Dang was 15 spots better than Naperville North's fourth. 

Individually, Emily Covert of Minneapolis Washburn ran a very strong 18:13 to beat 2015 champion Grace Ping of Cotter MN. Ping ran 18:20.8 and took her first loss in high school competition (outside of NXN).