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This is an exciting time for the Hermantown boys and girls cross country programs. Andy Wilcox, who has been Maddie Armruster's assistant for the last three years, is now the head coach.
"Maddie stepped away from coaching cross country this year to spend more time with her family and her new baby," said Wilcox. "We were sad to have her leave but also very excited for her to have this time with her baby. We recently hired Annika Voss as a new assistant, and she brings some great running experience and coaching ideas to this staff. We have also added a couple of new volunteer assistant coaches, Ryan Davis and Brady Alaspa, who will add excitement and experience."
Wilcox said the Hawks boys and girls teams will be competitive again this season.
"We should be in the mix at most meets," said Wilcox. "While we may not place first as a team, we will have some top-placing individuals in many of the meets. Some of these athletes have been running for me since I started coaching here in 2021, and seeing their growth year over year is one of the biggest reasons I enjoy coaching this sport."
Wilcox said Section 7AA always has some very good runners on both the boys and girls teams.
"Chisago Lakes, Hibbing, Proctor and Rock Ridge will all have very solid teams again this year," he said. "If our section keeps staying as competitive as it has been the last few years, not only will we see even better individual times but overall better performances from all teams in our section when we compete head to head at many of the meets we are at.
"We are a very young team, yet we are returning a good portion of last year's boys and girls varsity teams. Sophomore Ferrah LaLone, a first-team All-Lake Superior Conference selection in 2023, returns as the Hawks only state qualifier from last year. She has very high goals this year of returning to state and placing higher than last year. We also have Avery Beranek who is running well this fall. She was unfortunately injured last year and missed about two-thirds of the season, so she will be a huge asset to have healthy again.
"Some of our other girls varsity runners such as Morgan Panichi, Elliana Reuter and Cadence Downs look to have good years and have goals to beat last year's personal best 5K times. We also have some younger runners who may make some noise this year, including Zoey Lucarelli and Kenzie Davis. Both are incoming seventh-grade runners who have put in some miles of training over the summer and will be fun to watch."
The Hawks boys team will be led by sophomores Cooper Lucarelli and Matthew Strukel, who both earned first-team All-LSC honors in 2023.
"Cooper and Matthew have big goals in mind this year of not only making all-conference again but working towards getting that state qualifier title as well," said Wilcox.
"We have a solid core of boys who will push each other for the next handful of spots on varsity. Zach Warner, Tyler Breitkreutz, Nick Lane, Cooper Caine and others all have their own goals to not only beat their times from last year and push each other during practices. We also have a pair of incoming 7th graders, Karter Davis and Cody Carlson, who are big bright spots for the future of our program and may try to push their way onto the varsity team by season's end."
