MINNEAPOLIS — The South Tama County cross country hit the road on Sept. 21 for a trip to Minneapolis, Minn. to compete in the Roy Griak Invitational. This is the 37th annual meeting of the highly competitive, historic meet, and the Trojans looked to take advantage of this great opportunity. Only six boys varsity runners made the trip up north to compete along with coaches Robert Tyynismaa and Baron Davis.

The meet takes place on the University of Minnesota Golf Course, which is filled with lots of quick turns and rolling hills. But with the great weather and tons of competition the South Tama cross country team has big goals on their minds. Lined up in box 11, the Trojans were one of 40 teams in this invitational, with 408 individuals set to start this highly anticipated race.

As the gun went off the Trojans sprinted their way up to the front to get as much space as they could in this loaded field of runners. Leading the way for South Tama and finishing in 47th was senior Tommy Tyynismaa with a time of 16 minutes, 45.8 seconds. Not far behind finishing in 99th place was senior James Brant with a time of 17:16.

Coming in third for the Trojans was Cade Rosenburger with a time of 18 minutes 39.8 seconds, finishing in 272nd place. Rounding out the scoring for South Tama was Barret Jesina in 322nd place with a time of 19 minutes 7.0 seconds and Holden Schirmer in 326th place with a time of 19 minutes 9.7 seconds. Finishing out the race for the Trojans was Braxten Rohrs with a time of 19:19.3, in 341st place.

The Trojans as a team finished 33rd out of 40 teams with a score of 831 points. In addition, South Tama beat fellow 3A top 15 ranked conference rival Clear Creek-Amana in this stacked race. As the Trojan boys headed back home, they looked forward to their next meet on Sept. 26 at Williamsburg with another great chance to compete with some of the top teams in the state.