Official practice has begun. Every year on the first day of practice the Minneapolis Southwest Cross Country team does a two mile time trial at the fairly tough Rose Gardens course, or four laps of the half mile course. The time trial is designed to show the coaches how hard runners have been working over the summer and what kind of shape they are in at the start of the season.
   The freshman class this year turned out to be much bigger than the last couple years and the veterans are glad to see so many new faces joining the well-known program. While last year many alumni ran in the two mile trial, this year it was just Southwest runners. Below are the top three finishers of this year's trial.

Two Mile Time Trial 2002
1 - Erik Maloney (Junior) - 11:30
2 - Evan Rowe (Sophomore) - 12:03
3 - Austin Groth (Senior) - 12:08

   Last year Herbierto Vargas was the winner in 10:55, beating runner-up Erik DeLapp by ten seconds. The year before Neil Grosscup won, and in 1999 alumni Reed DeLapp took the win.