Alex Eisen/MDN The Majettes cross country team runs in a pack at practice Thursday at Minot High School.

Two programs, one course. The Minot High School boys and girls cross country teams set out on the first competitive run of the season this morning at the Municipal Golf Course in Williston.

Here is an outlook of the teams heading into the new season.

Girls: Six of a Kind

Three Abigail’s, two Allie’s and one Abbie. Practice can sometimes get a little confusing with six first names being so similar. So, for girl’s coach Carla Wahlund, it’s easier to just group them all together.

“Well, it’s a unique group,” she said. “They are either an Allie or an Abbie, so we call it the ‘A’ group more or less.”

Five of them are sophomores — Allie Nelson, Allie Wahlund, Abbie Wahlund, Abigail Hoffarth and Abigail Richardson — with junior Abigail Folk making up a pivotal portion of the 38-member team.

“You can’t go wrong if you say an Abbie or an Allie, then you have hit the top contenders from our team,” Carla Wahlund said.

The Majettes return all five placers from last season’s state meet: Nelson (23rd), Hoffarth (31st), Allie Wahlund (32nd), Abbie Wahlund (40th) and Maliah Burke (52nd). They finished fifth as a team.

“I think we look really good,” Allie Wahlund said. “We have a lot of people back from last year.”

Folk added: “We all came out really strong to start the season and we are just pushing each other really well.”

Other runners looking to make strides this season is Folk’s younger sophomore sister Elizabeth or “Lizzy” for short, sophomore Ella Francis and a pair of freshmen in Ashley Nelson and Brooke Keller.

The Majettes also welcome in senior Adrianna Wilder, a transfer from Louisiana. Wilder’s time of 19 minutes, 14 seconds in the Region 1 5A Championships in Louisiana last season ranked as the seventh fastest time in school history at her former Parkway High School.

“The times that (Wilder) has ran, like last year there, are very competitive,” Carla Wahlund said. “She will really help our core group out.”

Comparing times isn’t applicable with Wilder racing three miles and, last season, North Dakota upping the distance from 4,000 meters to 5,000 meters (3.107 miles) to be more consistent with what other surrounding states are running.

“We had to learn about that extra distance, the training that goes into that so they can go on for another 1,000 meters and strategies when they race,” Carla Wahlund said. “They don’t always have to attack it right away, maybe it’s midway that you should attack. Those types of things are what we learned as a team and as individuals.”

Boys: New cast, same routine

The Magicians have a new-look this season after graduating three of their state meet runners last season in Keston Van Dusen (24th), Austin Folk (42nd) and Gabe Hegstad (46th).

“We had a nucleus of guys that had been our center for the last couple of years and they have graduated,” MHS boys coach Aaron Klingbeil said. “We are starting with a very different DNA. That other group was fantastic, but this group is different. We are trying to figure out where our strengths and weaknesses are.”

Runners aren’t all built the same.

“We are still in the diagnostic phase,” Klingbeil said. “In the past, we knew the guys coming in were strong kids in general. So, we didn’t worry about strength as much as we did with endurance. While these guys actually have a little more endurance, so we are still trying to figure out today if we need speed.”

The Magi return only one runner, senior Ethan Behm (28th), who finished inside the Top 50 at the 2016 state meet. But, they have a number of athletes looking to take the next step forward this season.

“There are a lot of guys that are new to the sport or new to their legs,” Klingbeil said. “For example, Aaron (Gochanour) had previously just been in the mix. Well, now he is suddenly running very well every day.”

Gochanour added: “In the past, I have always been in the back of the pack and barely keeping up. But, I’m doing a lot better this year. I think it’s the mental attitude, like ‘oh, I’m a senior and this my last chance.’ Cross country is entirely a mental game. You are running close to 20 minutes in a single race. Everything has to be super strategic, like every single move you make. It’s not as simple as running fast.”

Senior Deven Forbes started finding his groove at the end of last season.

“Last year was the first time I got into a race with what they call a ‘runner’s high,'” Forbes said. “It’s where you are just going and feel like you can just keep going faster and faster until you’re about 50 meters from the line. That was awesome at regionals.”

Others looking to make an impact are junior David Amsbury, junior Collin McDonald, sophomore William Walker-Rozo and sophomore Austin Geyer.

“I could just keep listing them because there are so many of them,” Klingbeil said.

With new opportunities on varsity and some new faces, yet the training will remained mostly the same. Even with the state mandating that cross country teams start practice a week later than usual.

“Even though there is nothing really new,” Klingbeil said. “I think in some ways we are executing the warm-up better. We’re in the weight room and there is more accountability. We are trying to do everything the same, but better.”

The Williston Invite is scheduled to start this morning at 10:30 a.m. Minot High hosts an invitational on Friday at the Optimist Soccer Complex.

Alex Eisen covers Minot High School, Minot State athletics and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.