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DeCann crowned Tomahawk-Valley Champion in first-ever win

By Ari Selvey 4 min read

MADELIA -- After being part of a four-runner pack for the first half of the Tomahawk-Valley Conference Cross-Country Boys Championship meet, Madelia’s Caleb DeCann saw an opening to move ahead to the front.

"Right when we got to the halfway point, I saw [Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop's Juan Sunun-Perez], he decided he was going to push," DeCann said. "I decided to go with him, and I decided I was feeling good and I got out there. See if anybody went with me. Nobody did, and I just needed to continue the race and push through."

DeCann never relinquished that lead, winning his first-ever cross-country meet with a time of 17:27.6 to become the 2026 Tomahawk-Valley Champion on Tuesday.

"It means everything," DeCann said. "This is my first win ever including junior high in cross-country. It just feels amazing right now.

"I decided to go with the lead pack today, and once I got half way, I decided to push it and try to break from everybody. I kept pushing, nobody went with me, and I finished strong."

Madelia finished second as a team, right behind Loyola-Cleveland-St. Clair. Sleepy Eye St. Mary's/Sleepy Eye/New Ulm Cathedral placed third, followed by Martin County West/Butterfield-Odin, Lester Prairie, Springfield/Cedar Mountain and Wabasso.

Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop didn't have enough runners to compete as a team, but Sunun-Perez led the Firebirds with a second-place finish (17:40.9).

"It was great," Sunun-Perez said. "I was so glad, and I was the leader for half a mile. I was like, 'I got this.' I had to do it for my mom, my parents -- I know they're not here watching me, but I need to make them proud of me. So I did it."

SM/SE/NUC's Max Fischer placed third in the race (17:48.2), while L/C/SC's Griffin Rutz took fourth. SM/SE/NUC's Levi Hagen placed fifth (18:13.1), followed by Madelia's Ethan Christensen in sixth (18:27.5). Rollie Matejcek of L/C/SC placed seventh (18:42.2), Madelia's Carson Meraz placed eighth (18:42.4), and Lester Prairie's Nestor Garza Juarez finished ninth (19:07.8). SM/SE/NUC's Oziel Lozano closed out the top 10 (19:11.1). Xavier Manderfield led Springfield/Cedar Mountain with a time of 2100.3 to place 21st, while Joey Krause placed 28th (21:54.5) to lead Wabasso.

The Section 2A Meet will be held on Thursday, Oct. 29 at Baylor Park in Norwood Young America. Both DeCann and Sunun-Perez are looking to carry their momentum into tournament season.

"It feels amazing going into sections off of my first win ever," DeCann said. "What I'm preparing for is I'm just trying to stick with the competition and stick with it and make it to state. Right now it's going to be tough, and I'll just have to push myself through and hopefully I'll have my team's support and my family to help me do that."

GIRLS MEET

Loyola/Cleveland/St. Clair's Charlotte Meyer was able to repeat as Tomahawk-Valley Girls Cross-Country Champion on Tuesday, finishing the meet with a time of 19:28.4, but Wabasso's Elsie Leopold finished as the conference runner-up with a time of 20:19.6.

"It was a good, solid run," Leopold said. "I just like to keep a solid pace and not push myself too hard so I still have something for sections.

The 2025 Section 3A Champion, Leopold said she expected to finish near the top coming into the race.

"I'm pretty proud of myself," she said. "I thought I was going to do about that."

The Section 3A Meet will be held on Oct. 29 in Luverne, where Leopold hopes to repeat as champion and return to the state meet.

"I want to win again and try to get a PR at sections," she said.

L/C/SC took six of the top 10 spots in the conference meet to repeat as conference champions as well. Springfield/Cedar Mountain took second, while Wabasso finished third. Martin County West/Butterfield-Odin placed fourth.

Individually, S/CM's Farrah Dauer placed ninth (21:50.7), while SM/SE/NUC's Emma Hagen placed 10th (22:20.1). S/CM/s Mya Reese (22:25.2) and Lydia Dauer (22:27.2) took 11th and 12th, and Wabasso's Gracelyn Fogelson placed 13th (23:05.9). S/CM's Marley Hewitt placed 14th (23:09.2), and Wabasso's Abi Zeug placed 15th (23:29.0). Kinley Bruns led Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop with a 17th-place finish (24:14.7).

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