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Willmar 2008 CC Preview
Boys-
Girls-
The girls return a very intact roster losing only two seniors.  The team returns a squad dominated by juniors in at any meet of the year the varsity could be 7 juniors. The team is led by junior Jayne Cole who is looking to become the first cardinal girl to advance to state since Kari Higdem. After Cole, there is no clear favorite for the remaining varsity order. Starting with the seniors, they are Ashley Bach and Ashley Wigton. Both Ashley's made regular appearances on the varsity roster last year. The juniors that will be in the varsity mix are Jackie Johnson, who was consistently in the top5 last year. Emily Ellingson another junior who was also in the top 5 last year consistently is also back. Erin Sheehan is in the same position as Ellingson after being on varsity for most of the year.  Another junior is Danielle Erickson and just like the 3 previous girls has been in the varsity mix for the past couple years.  A second year runner and junior Dominique Hudson has been running with the top girls over the summer and the first week of practice and could make a splash on the varsity squad this year.
To be continued....
A year of surprise could be the teams motto for the 2008 year. A year after taking 6th at the MN state meet, the boys return only there #1 runner from the state roster.
Mahad Hassan returns for his senior season to lead a group of young runners.  Mahad is coming into the season ranked as the MN#1 runner after placing 4th at the MN state meet last season.  The only other senior on the team is captain Garrett Erickson who will contend for a varsity spot.  The young group of runners is led by junior Sadam Abdi, a transfer from Lewiston, Maine.  A talented runner should be able to compete as a top-10 runner in the state. Another junior who should be in the top5 on the team is Matt Weitzel.  Other juniors who could compete for varsity time are Danny Voss, Tom Lapatka and Mursal Shire. A strong freshman, Mowlid Mohamud looks to continue the tradition of strong incoming freshman and he should be a part of the varsity squad.  Another freshman who will make an impact is Alex Johannes who came out to the team last year in order to get in good shape for wrestling. Another contender on the team will be 8th grader Abdi Mohamud who is out for his first year and is running with the varsity runners.
As a team, it will be an inexperienced team, but a team with tons of potential as all of the aforementioned runners have made huge improvements from last year and could make bigger jumps throughout the year.  The team enters the preseason as MN#8.