Wayzata Girls Hope To Summon More Minnesota Magic

By Mary Albl of DyeStat

Dave Emmans lets out a short laugh.

The longtime girls cross country coach at Wayzata High has just been asked why his team from the state of Minnesota has somehow been able to find success against the juggernaut state of New York.

“For that one year we won?”  he answers.

The question takes him back to the fall of 2013. It was five seasons ago when Wayzata made the trip to Oregon and knocked off seven-time defending national champion Fayetteville-Manlius NY at the Nike Cross National Championship meet.

“I think that year we happened to have a group that came in together and their type of personality mixture was amazing,” Emmans explained. “I think we understand that team dynamic. My coaches and I, we work on that all the time. I think that’s one of the reasons why we’ve done well, and one of the reasons why we’re in that position again to do well.”

Since the inception of Nike Team Nationals in 2004, before being renamed Nike Cross Nationals four years later, Wayzata is the only girls team to win a national championship outside the state of New York. Fayetteville-Manlius enters the 2018 cross country season as winners of the past four titles, and 11 overall.

But this fall, that could change. After a seventh-place finish at NXN a year ago, and five of their top seven runners returning, the Trojans – No. 1 in the country in the DyeStat preseason rankings – are once again in position to make some Minnesota magic.

“I don’t necessarily know if we compare ourselves to them (2013), but we do know, ‘Here’s what they did right,’” senior co-captain Mara McCollor said. “And our coaches tell us during a given workout, here’s what really worked out for them and what went right. It’s really fun to look at this team and be like, ‘That could be us.’ Which is kind of crazy.”

With the exception of sophomore Ingrid Halverson, whose older sister Annika was a member of the 2013 squad, there are few personal connections to the national team. This group knows the history, but is looking to make their own memories.

Led by juniors Emma Atkinson, Caroline Sassan, Rhynn Paulsen and sophomores Emelia Arnone and Lauren McCollor, this young team got a taste, or as Emmans calls it “data” at what it takes to compete and run well at the national level.

“They really want to get back, and now they feel like they can do a lot better,” Emmans said. “I think they gained the experience and now they want to go out there with the mindset that we’ve been here, and now we have some data to by.”

Emmans describes this group as tight-knit. It’s a crew that is mainly underclassmen and pretty locked in with how they all train.

“We work well together,” McCollor said. “We all don’t have exactly the same personalities of course, but I think we do match a lot, and a lot of training is on the same level. This team, we definitely all know each other’s goals and our own.”

Emmans, who is entering his 26th year at Wayzata, is not big on micromanaging. Transparent with what they do and how they do it, Emmans allows his runners to run the volume that is working for them. He’s key on long-term development and sustainability. For McCollor, who won the state Nordic individual ski title last winter, that means some cross training in her workouts.

“It’s really beneficial,” McCollor said. “He’s really open to talking about what’s best for you. Not everyone is the same. As a coach he’s done a really, really good job with that.”

Added Emmans: “Myself and my assistants talk about this all the time, ‘How far do we want to push kids in high school?’ That’s always on our mind. I think what we have to do this year is to be really smart and objective about every week that we do. We have to be very mindful of everything we do because they are in very good shape from the summer, they were very motivated.”

The first big test for Wayzata will come Sept. 29 in its own backyard at the Roy Griak Invitational at the Les Bolstad Golf Course in St. Paul. They’ll face 2017 national runner-up Naperville North IL.

“I have a lot of respect for what I know of the Wayzata program,” said Naperville North head coach Dan Iverson, who has gotten to know Emmans over the years.

“We’ve gone to the Griak meet since 2013, we’ve gone up there and gotten dusted by Wayzata and been up there and won as well. They’re a program that seems to get how teams should be built and how programs should be built.”

While Emmans doesn’t hide the excitement and possibility of this year, he knows just how difficult it is to win a national title. On Dec. 7, 2013, bone-chilling temperatures and a firm course played in favor to a team from Minnesota that featured a few Nordic skiers on the roster.

“Quite frankly, sometimes I think you need a lot of luck,” Emmans said. “We have so much respect for Fayetteville, we do take pride in that and we understand how difficult it is to go. We talk about how you have to think big and because the reality of the situation, if you haven’t done it before, it’s hard to get there.”

This season, Wayzata is hoping for more of that Minnesota magic.