Cross Country State Meet, 2022: Class AA Boys
Posted: Saturday, November 5, 2022 - 4:35 PM
Belle Plaine's Emmett Gerres used a surge in the final mile to win the Class AA Boys Cross Country State Championship on Saturday, Nov. 5 at St. Olaf College in Northfield.
Any visions of individual success that Belle Plaine senior Emmett Gerres had during the 2022 season took a backseat to something much larger. He wanted to be a part of leading the Tigers into the Boys Cross Country Meet for the first time in school history. That happened and individual success followed.
Not only did Belle Plaine qualify as the Section 2AA runner-up, but Gerres also found the winners circle when he captured the Class AA Boys Cross Country individual state championship in a time of 15 minutes, 13.7 seconds. That was 9.3 seconds faster than Rock Ridge senior Cameron Stocke. Willmar’s Sully Anez was third in 15:27.
As a team, Belle Plaine finished seventh out of 16 qualifying teams. Mankato East, the Section 2AA champion, won the Class AA title with 111 points, just two fewer than Rock Ridge. Big Lake, the defending Class AA champion, was third with 136 points.
Gerres finished ninth overall in 2021 in a time of 16:25.1.
A year later, he shaved more than a minute off his time and it was more than good enough to end his prep career as a state champion. At the one-mile mark, he was nearly three full seconds behind Stocke. A mile later, the lead diminished to three-one hundredths of a second. Gerres put on a final surge in the last mile that sent him to a decisive victory.
