Bailey 71st at State Cross-Country Meet

Josh Bailey competed at the Minnesota State Boys and Girls Cross-Country Meet at St. Olaf College, Saturday, placing 71st overall in a time of 17:24.
Bailey was competing in his second-straight state meet after also qualifying last fall as a junior.  He placed sixth at the previous week’s Section 6A Meet at New London-Spicer, and also placed second at four other meets for the Fighting Braves this fall.
Declan Dahlberg, of Mounds Park Academy, won the Class A boys title with a time of 15:56.9, edging the second place runner by two-tenths of a second, and the third-place runner by four-tenths of a second.
Mora won the boys team title by six points over Perham (93 to 99).  Perham’s last runner placed 36th, but with a time one  second better could have placed 32nd and moved up four points.  Mora’s last runner was 44th, but with a time 1.4 seconds slower, would have placed 47th, losing three points and giving Perham the title.
That’s how close these meets come down to.
Bailey, who ran a personal best 16:56 at the section meet, ran a time of 17:24 at the state meet, but the St. Olaf College course is much hillier and tougher than the course at NLS.  That was good enough for 71st place out of the 176 total runners in the boys Class A race.
He placed 50th last year as a junior with a time of 17:18.  At the time, that was a personal best for Bailey.  That time would have also placed him 64th this year, giving proof to the continued improvement of cross-country runners in the state of Minnesota....
 
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Pictured: Benson senior Josh Bailey (front) competed in his second-straight State Cross-Country Meet this past Saturday at St. Olaf, placing 71st overall.