MISQUAH — Kyliegh Braaten finished ninth of eighty-six girls at the Pine City invitational Saturday, two weeks after finishing eleventh of ninety-four in her first high school race, and told Coach Mark Koski afterward that she had gone out too slow.

Koski’s response, relayed to this newspaper with her permission and some evident pleasure: “She did go out too slow. She will not next week. That is the entire coaching I did this weekend.”

The Pike boys finished sixth of ten teams, up from seventh of eleven at Sandstone, with the top four within thirty-one seconds of each other, which Koski says is the real result and which does not appear anywhere in the standings.

The girls again did not field a complete scoring team. Pike has three girls running and needs five. Koski has been saying this in this newspaper since 2023 and has stopped being polite about it: “We have three. Two more and we are a team and Kyliegh has something to run for besides herself. I am not asking anybody to be fast. I am asking two people to show up.”

The home meet is Saturday on the pavilion course, 10 a.m. The hill is where it has always been.

Braaten has now beaten her seed at both meets and has told two people she does not want to talk about her time until she has run the home course, which is Saturday, and which she has run in practice eleven times.

Pike’s top four boys — all of them juniors or sophomores — finished within thirty-one seconds of each other Saturday, which Koski calls the difference between a team and five individuals, and which he says he has been waiting three seasons to be able to say.

The home meet Saturday is the only one Pike hosts all year. Koski asks for four volunteers at the chute and notes that the job requires standing still, counting, and not cheering for anybody in particular, which he says eliminates most parents.