Three Vikings will advance to Section 7 finals—Molly Zafft, Peter Warren and Jessica Berg-Collman. However, nearly all of the Viking track team members achieved personal bests at the Sub-Section 7 track finals at UMD on May 23. Above: The Cook County Viking developing hurdling crew was led by junior Meadow Adams who finished 8th in the 300 meter low hurdles in 54.43, missing the 7th place qualifying time by 3/10s of a second. Right: Seventh-grader sprinter Molly Thomas led the Viking girls in the 400 at 71.3.
Senior Molly Zafft led the Cook County High School track team at the South Sub-section track meet at UMD, winning the 100-meter dash in a PB (personal best) of 13.21, and finishing 2nd in the 200 in 27.37. Junior Peter Warren led the boys’ team, finishing 2nd in the 100 with an 11.69 PB and placing 6th in the 200 at 24.64. All-around sophomore athlete Jessica Berg-Collman completed the qualifying list by placing 5th in the shot put with a throw of 30’ 2.5”. The big story for the team however was the huge number of personal bests set by the rest of the team members.
Despite this year’s crop of sprinting stars, the Vikings have traditionally been known as a strong distance running team, primarily due to the success of the cross-country team. Although none of the distance runners made it through to the Section finals (the top 7 qualify) most of them recorded personal bests at sub-section and they will all be back next year. Eighth-grader Matea Acero and 10th grader Joey Chmelik came the closest. Matea moved up steadily through the 2-mile girls’ field, finishing 11th in a PB13: 13, while Joey went out hard with a tough half-mile field, setting a PB of 2:16. Audrey Summers, Levi Axtell, and Ben Seaton were all 12th—Audrey in the girls’ half mile at 2:47; Levi in the boys’ 2-mile at 11:42 and Ben with a 5:10 PB in a very tough boys’ mile field. Eighth-grader Morgan Weyrens-Welch led the girls in the mile with a 6:33, 19th place finish.
Other distance runners, all of whom had personal bests, included seventhgraders Alyssa Martinson and Sarah Toftey in the half-mile at 2:59 and 3:06 respectively, eighth-grader Roman Schnobrich in the boys’ half mile at 2:34;Tarin Hanson and Michaela Peterson at 6:51 and 9:36 in the girls’ mile; seventhgraders Will Lamb and Jack Viren in the boys’ mile at 6:06 and 6:19 respectively; Cailan Carpenter and Rusty Day in the 2-mile at 15:22 and 14:03 respectively. The future looks bright for CCHS distance running.
Junior Peter Warren led the boys’ team, finishing 2nd in the 100 with an 11.69 PB and placing 6th in the 200 at 24.64. His brother, Noah Warren, pictured here holding the block for Peter, trailed his older brother with a fine 27.2 in the 200.
Our developing hurdling crew was led by junior Meadow Adams who finished 8th in the 300 meter low hurdles in 54.43, missing the 7th place qualifying time by 3/10s of a second. Nate Carlson led the boys with a 46.55 11th place finish. Melanie Stoddard improved in both the 100-meter high hurdles, finishing in 22.11 and the 300 lows at 69.76. Mara MacDonell led our jumpers with a 27’ 0” triple jump, placing 10th.
Besides Jessica’s qualifying shot put performance, Levi had an excellent discus throw of 104’ 11”, and Abbey Sutton threw 23’ 9.5” in the shot and 56’ 3” in the discus.
Tenth-grade sprinter Cy Fortunato had a breakthrough run of 58.8 in the 400 meter, while ninth-grader Andy Farley ran well at 63.7. Seventh-grader Molly Thomas led our girls in the 400 at 71.3, with Emily Jacobson recording a 79.2 and Sarah Larsen an 86.9. Noah Warren trailed older brother Peter with a fine 27.2 in the 200, while Alyssa ran a very nice 31.9 for the girls. Seventh-grader Emily came back to run a 16.4 in the 100, while classmate Hannah Toftey ran 17.4.
A very happy senior Molly Zafft on the podium. Molly led the Vikings at the South Sub-section track meet at UMD, winning the 100-meter dash in a PB (personal best) of 13.21, and finishing 2nd in the 200 in 27.37.
Our top relay was our boys’ 4×800 team of Ben, Joey, Nate and Levi that just missed advancing to section finals with a 9:10 5th place finish (top 4 relay teams advanced.). Our top girls’ team of Molly, Jessica, Meadow and Mara was in contention in the 4×200 at 1:58.8.
Looking forward to Section Finals, only the top 2 advance to State in each event—very tough when you started with 30+ teams and 50-60 individuals in each event. Molly Zafft is our top candidate, and should contend in both 100 and 200. She has tough competition from International Falls, Two Harbors and Marshall. She is one of three pretty equal runners in the 100 and one of five in the 200. There is one boy from Hinckley who is a big favorite in the 100, while Peter is one of five competing for the 2nd spot. Virginia, Two Harbors and Esko all have tough competitors. The boys’ 200 is very deep, where Peter is ranked about 8th. Jessica will be going to Section finals looking to improve on her 30’ season best. It will be exciting!
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