Good cross country teams try to run in a pack, and that’s what the Cook County/Two Harbors cross country team did at the Hibbing meet. Above (L-R), Maya McHugh, Isabel Schottenbauer, Matea Acero and Abigale Seipke did just that for much of the race.
Blue colored the sky at the Swain Invitational on Saturday October 3, which has been a seemingly rare occasion for the course that has gained a reputation for a challenging hill and miserable weather. We were lucky this year with the weather and as usual the challenging hill didn’t keep the Vikings from performing well against the competition. All of these hills on the North Shore help us train for this meet. This year we mixed things up a little bit.
The young 7th-9th graders who have been running varsity much of the season had a chance to see how they stack up against their peers in a 3k. Both our boys’ and girls’ teams finished in 5th place out of 26 teams. Viking junior high boys scored 148 points behind Mounds View (32), Minneapolis Southwest (122), Cloquet (130) and International Falls (145). Vikings junior high girls scored 158 points behind Dryden (106), Proctor (111), Plainview-Elgin-Millville (129), and Hermantown (148).
Our top junior high boy was Noah Smith who finished in 3rd place with a time of 10:07, which was about a minute faster than his time last year. Finishing behind Smith was Leif Anderson who ran a perfect race with a time of 10:39 for a 9th place finish; Brenden Seipke in 12th (10:45); Thatcher Sunday in 30th (11:06); and our 5th runner of the day was JC Holman in 12:29 placing 126. Jron Tamanaha was our 6th runner of the day and he really improved his pacing and ran 6:45 minute per mile with a time of 12:33. Tate Crawford was close behind running 12:41 and he was followed by Henry DeArruda-Weaver who has really brought his time down this year with a 3k of 12:55. Tanner DeBoer quickened his pace and was running under 8-minute miles; he finished in 14:44. DeBoer was followed by Levi Nelson in 15:21 and Doran Acero in 16:18.
Steadily improving Lyndon Blomberg (left) shows good form while Louise Ramberg pushes hard to the finish line at the Swain Invitational.
Our top junior high girl was Isabel Schottenbauer who finished in 4th place with a time of 12:03. Finishing behind Schottenbauer and helping the team finish in 5th place were Louise Ramberg in 12:55 for 21st place, Kate Walsberg in 27th (13:06), Robin Henrikson in 73rd (14:01), Hazel Oberholtzer in 78th (14:09), Malin Anderson in 98th (14:27) and Amelia Roth in 115th (14:45). Roth had a very strong race it was fun to see her really improve her pacing.
Our JV girls all had a dynamite day not letting the hill stand in the way of improvement. Hazel Babcock ran a season-best time of 29:29. Daphne Lacina had a 4-minute improvement and finished in 30:16. Lucy Callender improved by a little over 3-minutes and finished in 31:49.
Adam Ruzicka, an exchange student from the Czech Republic, finished in 5th place for the JV race with a time of 18:53. He will be a nice addition to our varsity squad. Finn Garry is back and he ran a 20:33, which was a nice time for him to return to. Christian Beamer and Harvey Parker both had season-best times by 2-minutes and ran 22:16 and 24:08 respectively.
The winner of the girls’ varsity race was Hannah Truniger from Watertown- Mayer. She will be one to watch at the state meet as she ran her 5k in 18:50. Matea Acero led the Vikings with 21:25 in 51st place.
Three of our varsity runners were able to celebrate season-best times which were improvements by more than 30 seconds; Abigale Seipke running 22:01, Molly Thomas in 24:03, and Ruby Walsberg in 25:04.
Jake Paron had some company at the front of his race. The race went out fast and was pulled by Dan Pederson from Spooner, Wisconsin who won the race with 17-second lead and a time of 16:08. Paron ran well and smart completing an 8th place finish in a time of 16:45. The closest guy from our Section 7A was Teddy Pierce from Ely and he was 26 seconds behind Paron.
Also running the varsity race and motivated to stay out of the back were David Blackburn who ran a season best by 15 seconds and Andy Kern who ran a season best by 50 seconds. They both ran 22:46 and 23:02 respectively. Perfect weather at Hibbing
On Thursday, October 8 we went to the Hibbing Rotary Cross Country Meet, which is often overly warm. Today it was perfect racing weather and we walked away with some great races. Our boys’ varsity came in 7th and our girls came in 3rd place out of 11 teams behind South Ridge and Proctor. We had a couple of standout performances.
In the girls’ varsity race Matea Acero finished in 8th place with a time of 21:07, Kate Walsberg was our 4th runner for our team and shaved a minute off her time running 22:27. Alyssa Martinson, Ruby Walsberg, and Robin Henrikson were our top three girls in the JV race and finished 3rd, 4th, 5th. Robin was new to the 5k and she did a nice job with this race and finished in 24:56.
Zoe Nonnemacher finished in 8th place for the girls’ junior high race with a time of 14:51 for the 3k race. This was a great race for her; she found her race mode. Abbey Stoddard was another junior higher who had a stand-out day, she has really moved forward and she has quickened her pace by almost 2 minutes per mile since the beginning of the season.
Leif Anderson and Thatcher Sunday had standout days in the varsity race. They both improved their times and their placement. Anderson ran 20:11 and Sunday finished in 20:29.
Our junior varsity boys all set new personal records for themselves. JC Holman was new to the 5k and ran great in 21:44. Mahtahn Jenkins (21:52) and Christian Beamer (21:53) worked together as a great pack. David Blackburn (22:05) and Caleb Phillips (22:06) followed suit. Andy Kern (22:41), Tate Crawford (22:54), and Jake Bilben (22:59) worked together for most of the race. It has been fun to watch these boys improve through this season.
There aren’t many more meets in our regular season. At press time, runners were taking part in our Polar League Conference Meet at Pincushion Mountain trails on October 14.
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