Cross Country State Meet, 2022: Class A Boys

Sauk Centre senior Brandon Kampsen climbed two spots on the leaderboard from a year ago en route to winning the Class A Boys Cross Country state championship on Saturday, Nov. 5 at St. Olaf College in Northfield.

Kampsen, third in the Class A field in 2021, put on a late surge and covered the 5,000-meter course in a winning time of 15 minutes. He was 6.1 seconds faster than Nova Classical Academy senior Henry Karelitz, who was the Class A runner-up for the second consecutive season. Perham sophomore Bjorn Anderson was third in 15:57.9.

Kampsen, a cross country participant since seventh grade and a track and field participant for the past two, averaged 5:05.3 per mile over the 3.1-mile course. At the mile mark, Karelitz had the fastest split time of 4:58.4. Kampsen was second in 5 minutes flat. At the two-mile mark, Karelitz extended the lead to four seconds.

“I was just trying to stick with (Karelitz), hit on his heel,” Kampsen said. “He runs the two-mile in track and I run the 800, so I’ve got that little extra speed on him, so I knew if I stuck by his hip, I could most likely take him on the last 200 meters.”

Kampsen admitted that sticking with Karelitz was a challenge.

“That was definitely tough, knowing you’ve got how much left to go and that spring, of course,” he said. “You’re basically leaving it all out on the course there.”

Kampsen hopes his victory will leave a positive legacy.

“I wanted to really leave something, bring it back to the town, so I’ll be remembered in the school,” he said.

Top-ranked Heritage Christian Academy captured the team title with 99 points to edge runner-up, Luverne, by three points. Perham was third with 102.

Scoring for Heritage Christian Academy in the team championship pursuit were senior Jack Hoppe, freshman Lev Dougherty, junior Thomas Avra, senior Kees Van Oosbree and junior Jack Nelson.