Cotter Boys Cross Country sends off nine boys to the State meet at St. Olaf after an exceptional season.

Senior Matt Schrupp will be running in his fifth State Cross Country meet, a Cotter record, this year. Joining him will be senior Joe Tereba, juniors Henry Killen, Dylan Bilicki and Krystijan Vander Zanden, sophomores Anthony Murphy, Tim DeMarais and Mike speltz, and 8^th grader Garet Grant.

The Ramblers had high hopes coming off an impressive season last year. In 2012 Cotter won the HVL conference, section 1a, then placed 5th at the State meet. This marked the second highest finish for a Rambler CC team, the 1988 team finished 3^rd in the state.

In this year’s season, the boys won their first two meets at Stewartville and La Crescent, before encountering much tougher competition at Rochester Mayo, the U of M Roy Griak meet and the Jim Flim meet hosted by WSHS.

At their first Three Rivers meet, the Cotter boys placed 3^rd behind Plainview/Elgin-Millville (PEM) and Lewiston-Altura/Rushford-Peterson (LARP).  This brought them to the section meet in Rochester’s Northern Hills Golf Course where, to advance, the team needed to place 1st or 2nd out of the 22 teams. Spurred by solid performances across the board, they finished 2^nd and earned their return ticket to Northfield for the Saturday, November 2 meet. PEM won the section with a score of 90, followed by Cotter’s 108, both LARP and Lake City tallied 116  and La Crescent earned 5^th place with 120 in a close fought battle for the second spot.

In an interview prior to the section meet, Schrupp predicted that the team would advance to state.  “Many of the athletes put in extra effort; we are all running strong,” said Schrupp. “We’ve seen a lot of improvement in practice over the past couple weeks.”

Although more athletes were involved last year, “This year is more quality than quantity,” Schrupp said.

Schrupp had compiled quite a record for the Ramblers at the section meet, placing in the top 10 four times and earning five trips to the State meet. Schrupp plans on running in his college years, “I’m in contact with all of the coaches of the colleges I am considering.”

“Matt has had a tremendous career in Cross Country at Cotter.  He has been part of great teams and phenomenally consistent in both effort and results.  His record at the section meet demonstrates this quite clearly.  He has set high goals and always put forth the effort to meet them.” Coach Mike Costello said.  “As a senior, he has taken a leadership role that he never had before and both Matt and Joe Tereba really stepped up in terms of reaching out to teammates and being models of how to approach the season and represent the school.”  Senior Joe Tereba will be accompanying Schrupp to State to compete in his third State race.