JOHN SHERMAN john. sherman @ apgecm. com

The last 200 meters determined the state champion in last season’ s State Class AAA Boys Cross Country Meet at the University of Minnesota.

And on the scoreboard at the end, Edina was No. 1.“ I looked up at the scoreboard and saw that our fifth runner had finished ahead of Edina’ s fifth and Wayzata’ s fifth, and I thought we had won,” Minnetonka head coach Jeff Renlund said. He turned away for a moment, then looked back, and saw that Edina had surged onto the top of the board.

“ Going into the state meet, Edina had been struggling at the 4 and

5 spots,” Wayzata head coach Mark Popp said.“ But they had a good day. Their senior class had been building for that race and they won in the last 200 meters.”

Turning the page to 2025, Edina has lost six of the top seven runners from its state championship team, but the one holdover is a good one.

Senior captain Sander Ohe finished 10th in the Lake Conference Meet last year and then ran on the heels of the top group at state to make All-State with a 12th-place finish.

Ohe is the only captain for the Hornets this season, and in a game of follow the leader, he’ s the one the Hornets are pursuing.

“ Our team has more

potential than people might think,” Ohe said before a training session last week.“ My goal for the season is to get our team back to state.”

Personal success for Ohe is team-oriented, but as a side note, he would love to be an All-State runner once again.

Ohe is a rare athlete at Edina High – the first ever underclassman to win state team gold medals in golf and cross country. Golf has always been his primary sport, but he and his older brother Torger, who ran in the Hornets’ top seven last season, always enjoyed the balance of competing in two sports.

Sander Ohe is grateful

See BOYS CC | PAGE 11

( SUN PHOTO BY JOHN SHERMAN)

A familiar sight in neighborhoods throughout Edina this summer has been groups of runners from the boys cross country team passing by. From left to right are: Tyler Notermann, Rocco Hawthorne, captain Sander Ohe and Isaak Koivula-Schadow.