Photos by Samantha Davis: Canby/Minneota’s Mya Pesek finishes in fourth place in the 5,000-meter race at the Lakeview Invitational Monday afternoon in Cottonwood. The Canby/Minneota boys and girls team both finished in second place at the meet. Below: Lakeview’s Tate Remiger runs across the finish line for fifth place in the 5,000-meter race at the Lakeview Invitational Monday afternoon in Cottonwood.

COTTONWOOD — Both of the Canby/Minneota cross country teams finished in second place to open up the season on Monday at the Lakeview Invitational, with Mya Pesek leading the girls in fourth place and Lakeview’s Tate Remiger finished in fifth on the boys side in the 5,000-meter races.

“I love the base we are starting on. This gives us a good idea of where we’re at, and where we need to roll to get to where we want to be,” Canby/Minneota coach Allyson Pesek said. “[Today], we were right where I was hoping we would be, and maybe a little even ahead, so that’s always good, too.”

Redwood Valley took first place in both the boys and girls with scores of 17 and 19, respectively, while the Canby/Minneota boys finished with 63 points and the girls with 48.

The Lakeview boys came in fifth of eight teams, and Tracy-Milroy-Balaton placed sixth. Russell-Tyler-Ruthton and Yellow Medicine East finished the day in seventh and eighth.

The girls race had four teams competing, with Central Minnesota Christian taking third and RTR in fourth.

“The first race is always really hard … But, I think it felt good to be out running again,” Canby/Minneota’s Kallie DeVos said.

For Canby/Minneota, Pesek finished with a 20:56.26 time, just about a minute after Redwood Valley’s Addie Thomes’ first place.

Taylor Ourada and Adri Christianson kept up with one another finishing in eighth and ninth respectively, with a 22:20.95 and 22:26.95.

“Our team, we do like 90% mental [mindset when racing],” Ourada said. “Like 90% of it, we think it’s in our head. So, we just try and [think positive] … Like we know we can do it, we’re trained.”

TMB’s Miranda Mischke also had a top-10 finish out of the 54 individual racers with a time of 22:29.60.

On the boys side for Minneota/Canby, Tallen Merritt led the way with 11th place for 18:54.67. Brett Stoks, Seth Paluch, James Kamrath and Kendon Knutson followed close behind, all finishing in the top-20.

“I always say, we train quality,” coach Pesek said. “We aren’t a high mileage team, but we definitely have it laid out where we’ll hopefully peak in October, as we want to.”

The Canby/Minneota girls team won the Camden Conference last season for the fifth time with five individuals named All-Conference, and the boys took second with four All-Conference honors.

“With the girls, of course our desire and our dream is to get back to the state. We’ve been there the last three seasons,” coach Pesek said regarding team goals this season. “Also, we’ve won the conference the past [five seasons] on the girls’ side, and they want to hold that, too.”

Last season was the program’s 31st team appearance, and 16th for the girls.

“The boys were very close to winning the conference last year, and they really want that,” coach Pesek said. “They were seventh in the section last year, and for a long standing, we were top-5. So, they want to push back into that.”

In the boys race after a trio of Redwood Valley runners came across in the top-4, Remiger made his way across the finish line with a 17:13.40 time, four seconds still ahead of fifth place.

“I’m happy with my time. I was a lot more nervous than I thought I would be at this first meet, but yeah it was good. I liked it, and it was a good way to start,” Remiger said. “That’s why I love this meet [opening the season at home], because we start it and it’s a great way to see where I’m at.”

There were 95 individual runners on the boys side.

Becky Remiger, Lakeview’s head coach and Tate’s mother, also said today’s time was a new personal record for him.

“He’s [Remiger] put in so much work this summer,” coach Remiger said. “It was so nice to see it pay off for him today. For him to be able to race where he was racing today, we’re at a good point.”

The difference between first place and Tate was less than a minute, as he was surrounded by Redwood Valley runners, who had seven place in the top-10.

“The kid in front of me, I just kept my eyes on him, trying not to think as much,” Tate said. “If I think more, then I’ll slow down. ‘Don’t think, just run.’ My mom has that poster.”

Becky said she overall thought both of her teams competed well, and today was a good test to see where everyone is at. Lakeview doesn’t have enough girls to field a full team, but still has individual runners.

“We don’t have a lot of girls, but I thought they ran really well. Morgan [Velde, who led the girls and finished in 33rd], had been struggling the last couple years with some injury stuff, and she just looked so comfortable today,” coach Remiger said. “There was a lot of really good things today.”

“I’d like to see our boys pack it up a little bit, they need to tighten up,” coach Remiger added. “We have a tough conference again this year … The goal is to be a little bit better this year, and like in sections, too. Every year, we’ve just improved our team place, and that’s the goal. To just keep doing that.”

Canby/Minneota will next return to the course at the Tracy Meet on Sept. 4 at the Tracy Country Club, as will RTR and TMB.

Lakeview will compete at the Dragon Twilight Invitational on Sept. 5 at Minnesota State University Moorhead.