Athletes of the Week: Shakopee's Hauger dominates the 4K

Maria Hauger's legs have taken her much farther than just across golf courses and outdoor tracks.

The Shakopee junior and defending Class 2A cross-country champion not only won the Rolf Melby Invitational at St. Olaf University in Northfield; she owned it.

Her time of 13 minutes, 56 seconds over the 4-kilometer course -- the same one used for the high school state meet -- marked the first time Hauger had broken the 14-minute mark for the distance and a full 22 seconds better than her time in the 2010 state meet.

How dominant was Hauger? She beat the second-place finisher by more than a minute-and-a-half.

"Basically, that's what my training was around," Hauger said. "Beating 14 minutes was my main goal. Now, I'm focusing on beating that time."

Hauger's fantastic start to the season is merely a continuation of a successful summer. She won the young women's 3,000-meter championship at the USA Track and Field Junior Olympic Championships in Kansas in July and was named the USATF Minnesota female athlete of the month in August.

For the next two months, Hauger's focus will be on the Minnesota prep season. After that, however, she will be looking toward improving her profile on a national level, with plans to run in the Nike Cross Regional in South Dakota in early November and the Foot Locker regional in Wisconsin two weeks later.

The No. 1-ranked runner in Class 1A, Clark won the Tri-Metro preview with a 5K time of 16:08, 51 seconds better than the runner-up. This came four days after setting a course record at the Powderhorn Invitational with a 2-mile time of 9:54.

Donahue, a junior, has gotten off to a fast start as the Wildcats' No. 1 singles player. She is 5-0 for the season, including victories over highly regarded Meredith Lawrence of Visitation and Shelby Hendrickson of Lakeville South.

With Engnell as the spark plug, the Saints cranked up the offense in the fourth quarter to rally past Duluth East 36-21. He rushed for 202 yards and four touchdowns, all but one of them in the final quarter.

The senior outside hitter put up some big numbers in eight matches. She had 79 kills and 89 digs, including 23 kills in a victory over Jordan, 14 in a victory over Hutchinson and 29 in five matches in the Eden Prairie Pudas Invite.

Smith scored a goal and drew a penalty kick in the Fire's 2-1 OT victory over Apple Valley, ending the Eagles' 48-game winning streak. Two day later, he had a hat trick in a 3-0 victory over St. Louis Park.