Anna Hay and Ryan Christiansen narrowly miss out on a trip to the state track meet

Cook County senior miler (1600 meters) runner Anna Hay took third place at the section 7A track meet to just miss a trip to the state track meet. The top two in each event move on to state, which will be held June 9-11 at St. Michael-Albertville High School.

The section track & field meet was held at UMD Malosky Stadium in Duluth on Thursday, June 2.

Anna ran 5:47. Lamar Gordon of Two Harbors won the event with a time of 5:32.44. Two Harbors and Cook County combine their cross country running teams, so Anna and Lamar are teammates in the fall.

Cook County ninth grader Lexi Surbaugh placed 13th in the 1600 meters. She crossed the line with a fine time of 6:09.54.

The Vikings Women’s Varsity 4×200 meter relay team of Brianna Monson, Annabelle Silence, Sophia Sheehan, and Genevieve Silence took eighth place with a time of 2:08.98.

Senior sprinter Molly LaVigne didn’t run on the relay or individual 100 meters because she was away on a planned trip.

Cook County High School Junior sprinter Ryan Christiansen placed fourth in the 100 meters at the section meet, running 12.21. The event was won by Mason Perich of Esko, who ran 11.69. Second place went to Branden Lowe of Esko, 11.89, and Tate Nelson of Two Harbors was third in 12.51. The runners were sprinting into a headwind, and no one ran close to their personal bests in the 100 meters on this day.

Ryan placed sixth in the 200 meters, finishing in 24.93. Esko sprinters took the top three spots in the 200-meter dash. Mason and Makoi Perich of Esko took first (23.96) and second (24.28), and Tate Nelson (24.44) was third. Jordan Mount of Crosby ran 24.90 to edge Christiansen for fifth place.

Kyler Hansen from Cook County took 11th in the 1600 meter run with a time of 5.26.05.

Two Cook County boys qualified for the section meet in the 3200 meters. Keean Selin took 12th place with a time of 11:43.25, and Andrew Hallberg placed 14th with a time of 12:58.41.

The Viking 4×800 meter relay team of Brayden Schmidt, Kyler Hansen, Kaleb Berka, and Merlin Higgins ran 9:33.17 to take seventh place in the 4×800 meter relay.

Kaleb Berka triple jumped 35-09 to place 13th.