Hanson to make 5th consecutive state appearance

ABOVE: Macy Hanson.

FAIRMONT – Fairmont’s Macy Hanson has punched her ticket to her fifth consecutive state cross-country appearance after securing the victory in the Section 2AA Championship race last Friday.

Since then Hanson has announced her commitment to the University of Minnesota to continue both her athletic career and education.

“Each race is different … She hasn’t had a lot of competition, sometimes,” said Fairmont head cross-country coach Stew Murfield. “She’s not as dominant as others, but in the long run she’s still been pretty steady through the years. She was lucky when she ran with Laura Thompson that those two were together the whole time. So, she just followed Laura along, and they usually finished right together, and Laura left, and then she had to figure it out on her own, but she’s done a good job with that and she just needed to have one more great race and last year she ran well up there. She came around the last 1k at the golf course earlier. She went 10th place, and she did that loop, put the hills in there and she came out in fourth place, and held her spot. So, she had a great race that day. So, [hoping] for the same thing Saturday.”

Hanson was able to notch five wins this season as a Fairmont Cardinal, ranking No. 2 in her section. Since joining the team in seventh grade, Hanson has not missed a state appearance in her high school career.

The five-time state qualifier has found herself excluding the COVID year in contention for a title and has medaled three times, taking seventh her freshman year alongside teammate Laura Thompson, who finished sixth that year. In her sophomore and junior years, Hanson secured fourth-place finishes, setting the stage for one last run before becoming a Golden Gopher.

The accolades around Hanson do not stop there as she has also been named to the All-Conference team five times, while breaking the all-time school record previously held by Thompson at the annual I-90 meet this season, posting a time of 18:06.9 a personal and course record for the women’s 5000 meter race. According to her mother Crystal, Macy was pushing to get under the 18-minute mark which she successfully did in the MSHSL Section 2AA Championship posting a time of 17:52.2 securing the victory and her fifth state appearance.

“I’ve always liked the Gophers,” said Macy Hanson. “I’ve always cheered for them. You know, I always watch the Gopher football, so I kind of liked being a little bit closer to home. But … at the end of the day, it was really just being out on my visit … everything really clicked, like, I really liked their whole program, their coaches, the team.”

Having declared as a business major, Hanson is planning to follow in her family footsteps in being an entrepreneur. Hanson is looking to find continued success in the State meet on Saturday where she will race for one last time as a Cardinal before donning the Golden Gopher uniform.