MINNEAPOLIS — Celebratory state champion banners from the '80s and '90s still hang on the South High School cafeteria wall, but it's been a long time since boys cross country running has won state or even qualified for it.
Coach Malakai Holloway says this year's Tigers were determined to change that.
"It had been 25 years," Holloway said. "They came to me at the beginning of the season and were like, 'Coach, this is what we want to do. Like what are our chances?' and I was like, 'It's it's a long shot but like let's work towards it.'"
Holloway has helped train most of the guys as an assistant coach for a few years, and most of them are now seniors. But this is her first year as head coach.
"Growing up as a junior Olympian gave me that competitive edge," said Holloway, who also works as a middle school art teacher in Eden Prairie. "This is the first group of boys and the first group that I've coached that has reminded me of myself as an athlete."
Co-captain Owen Byer says practices have felt different this year.
"The workouts were quite brutal," he said with a smile.
But worth it, he says, as the team recently placed second in the Section 3AA Championships to qualify for state.
"The meet getting us into the state meet, half of our squad was sick and they still performed," Holloway said.
"Every single person here like contributed," co-captain Finn Bleakmore added. "If they didn't push that one second, we wouldn't have made it."
The state meet was held Saturday afternoon at the University of Minnesota Les Bolstad Golf Course. While the Tigers didn't win any medals, the boys say they were projected to finish last, or 16th place, but earned 12th instead.
"This was like probably one of the most unique races I've ever ran in my life," runner Gabriel Dueñes said. "I've never ran in a race where I had so much competition and so many people next to me."
"I'm so proud," his father, Michael Dueñes said. "The great thing about cross country is they were able to do it during the pandemic. I do not know what a lot of us parents would have done if the kids couldn't have been with each other."
This weekend, they'll travel to Sioux Falls for an invitational. Holloway says a fundraiser for the trip has brought in more donations than in previous years.
"It was actually by happenstance," she said. "I got an e-mail earlier this season saying that we'd gotten invited to the Nike Cross Meet and we'd never been invited before … I've been telling them all season, don't take this one seriously. Just have fun. We've had such a long season that this one is just like the icing on the cake like just to have fun."
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