Winona Cotter junior Erik Semling has added a statewide honor to a record-setting season. He was named the 2026 All-Minnesota Boys Cross-Country Runner of the Year.
Semling won the Class 1A title at the state meet at Majestic Oaks Golf Club in Ham Lake in 15 minutes, 16.2 seconds. The win made him the first boy in Minnesota history to win three individual cross-country state championships.
He went into the meet with the fastest seed time in the state, 25 seconds ahead of the next runner across all three classes. He said he had trained to reach his peak the following weekend at Nike Cross Regionals in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Cotter teammate Ryan Littlefield finished second in the Class 1A race, 21 seconds behind Semling. Their finishes helped the Ramblers win the school's first boys team championship, by a single point over Sibley East.
Semling comes from a running family. His sister Sonja placed third for Cotter at the 2024 state meet, and their father Brian won two state titles as a high school runner in Wisconsin. Semling will have a chance at a fourth individual title next year, and says he has not yet settled on a college.
