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Big Changes in St. Anthony HS Cross Country
 Since 1984, the St. Anthony Village Cross Country team had been combined with the Panthers of Spring Lake Park. Even though many seasons were great and filled with success, the Huskies face a change this year. Last spring, St. Anthony decided to break off from the Panther name to run solo, as the St. Anthony Village Huskies. Although Spring Lake Park brought great strengths to the team, a great coach, and excellent facilities, the Huskies now enjoy representing their own school, being made up entirely out of St. Anthony students. As the season started and their region changed, the Huskies faced new difficulties, but also many new opportunities. Although the Huskies are having a great year, Spring Lake Park had many contributions St. Anthony will miss.
Spring
Lake Park brought many strengths to the Spring Lake Park - St. Anthony Cross Country team, mainly in numbers. In years past, about half of the runners were Spring Lake Park students. When St. Anthony was combined with Spring Lake Park they were known for team successes, but now running solo allows St. Anthony to bring forth many individual runners and have them recognized for their great talent, not being in the shadow of the Panther logo. Spring Lake Park Head Coach, Mike Miller, brought forth huge developments in the Cross Country program which helped out many St. Anthony kids as they were able to experience a strong tradition and train from the best routines. A last major element that will be missed at Spring Lake Park is their facilities. They have an amazing new track and stadium built for their sports which allows great access for necessary training. With this many attributes, St. Anthony needed great reasoning to make the decision of parting from Spring Lake Park.
So after the many years of great success why would St. Anthony decide to split from this excellent program? As explained by St. Anthony's new head Cross Country coach, Travis MacLeod, the team at St. Anthony now has enough people to start making their own traditions and receiving their own recognition as a team. A big plus for the team is that with the home location of a practice course at St. Anthony instead of Spring Lake Park, more people are willing to try out for the team knowing there is less of a drive each day.
As questions arise of whether or not the team has been succeeding without Spring Lake Park, their record this year speaks for itself with 1st place wins in invitationals at Locke Park (SLP), Chisago Lakes and Prior Lake. They also took a 2nd place win in Fridley's Apple Run and 4th place in the Swain Invitational. To top off the team's success, they placed 2nd in the Conference race. With their change in the conferences from the North Suburban to Tri-Metro and from Regions 4AA to 4A, which includes many smaller schools for better competition, it has given individual runners more recognition to prove what excellent runners they really are. An example of this previously under-recognized excellence is St. Anthony's Andrew Hoffmann who is now ranked 6th in the state in Class A. Andrew is having an excellent year, being named Pioneer Press's 'Playmaker of the Week'; winning the conference meet and placing 1st in the Swain and Locke Park Invitationals. In addition, the girls team has also been having a great season.
Although many schools, and even some community members, may not know that St. Anthony has its own cross country team, the team is proud to represent their school and now may even be good enough to qualify for state. As old traditions with Spring Lake Park broke, St. Anthony is ready to make new and more impressive ones on their own.
By: Maureen Todd, Student Information Director
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