Staff Photo by Jake Olson Fairmont eighth grader Delaney Klug runs in the Early Bird Invite held at the Fairmont High School campus on Aug 22.

FAIRMONT – The Fairmont High School boys and girls cross-country teams are set to continue their postseason play this Thursday, traveling to Benson Park in Mankato and competing in the Section 2AA Cross-Country Championships.

Other schools set to compete are Belle Plaine, Luverne, Marshall, Hutchinson, Jordan, Mankato East, Mankato West, New Ulm, St. Peter, Tri-City United and Worthington.

While the field of competition is deep with talented individuals and teams, Fairmont head coach Andrew Moeller knows both his boys and girls teams will put their best foot forward while finishing the season on the highest note possible.

The girls are set to start at 3:30 p.m., with the boys following at 4:15 p.m.

Year 1 has been ultimately a success for first-year coach Moeller and his Cardinal program. Entering the fall with several new faces on both the boys’ and girls’ teams, Moeller has seen great race performances from both team and individual standpoints over the past couple of months.

For the boys’ side, it was a mix of new faces joining the varsity roster for the first time in their running careers. While many of these individuals were upperclassmen, the overall production Moeller received from this group has been successful, to say the least.

Senior Cooper Gudahl, eighth-grader Cole Hanson, sophomore Devin Hanson, and freshman Holden Junkermeier have been just a few of the individual standouts this season for the Cardinals, consistently finding themselves in the top six of Fairmont finishers as each race has taken place.

As a team, Moeller has seen this group progress smoothly through the nine-race season thus far. In Fairmont’s latest competition at the Big South Conference Cross-Country Meet, eight different individuals set personal records for the 5,000-meter race.

Some of the best team outings for the boys have been a second-place finish at the Early Bird Invite, fourth-place in the Paul Metcalf Individuals, and consecutive team titles in the St James Cross Country Invitational and the I-90 Invite.

“On the guys’ side, we had a lot of first-year older individuals,” Moeller said. “So, guys that had been out in the past, and juniors and seniors that came out. You kind of have a little bit of a gamble with them; you have no idea what you are actually going to get. But for the most part, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by what I got out of them.”

This year’s girls roster, while somewhat inexperienced like the boys, has been filled with underclassmen and youthful individuals who have also taken some of their first steps at the varsity level. The team had just two seniors, with eight other underclassmen competing throughout the season.

Sophomore Brooklyn Stone and eighth-grader Delaney Klug have consistently been the top individuals for the Cardinals this season, combining for six top-10 meet finishes over the course of the fall campaign.

The rest of the roster, however, has been steadily decreasing race times through the course of the season, much like the boys. Nine of the 10 individuals competing in the latest Big South Conference Cross Country Meet finished the season with a personal record for that specific distance.

“If you just look at our age, we are just so young,” Moeller said. “Again, you don’t know what you are going to get out of somebody younger. They don’t have the experience with them or the mileage under them for the last several years. … But I thought things could have turned out quite as good as I expected them.”

While the results for this Thursday are still up in the air, the foundation of a culture has been set by Moeller and his coaching staff, giving individuals the blueprints for success in the coming seasons.

Moeller believes that as runners return and participation in the program steadily progresses, his Cardinal program will continue to develop into the vision he sees fit.

“By being consistent with your training all year and being consistent with your processes and routines throughout the season, too, is a huge factor in setting yourself up for success,” Moeller said. “You’re not going to be winning state titles by having a couple of good individuals; you need to have a team. If you are going to have a good team, you have to have everybody on the same page.