What an amazing season.
The girls won the North Shore Challenge, they won the Eveleth-Gilbert meet, they were runner up for the Polar League Conference, and they finished 3rd at Sections, just missing making it to the state meet.
We get all of our Section runners back for the 2020 season. We will be looking to them to set the tone for summer running and striving to earn another trip to the state meet. I am impressed with the positive focus that our girls possess, and that will serve them well as we move to 2020.
The boys won the North Shore Challenge, won the Polar League Conference meet, and they had a third-place finish at the Section meet with sending three boys on to the State meet as individuals. We had many health setbacks during the season, but they pulled it together at the end to put forth their best efforts, nearly missing making it to the State meet. We will say goodbye to three/four key seniors on the varsity team, but we have many young runners with potential.
We will look to our veterans to set the tone for this next season. They will need to focus on lighting the fire in these young runners to get them out training and running in the summer as we will have many spots opening on the varsity team, and they will have to decide how good they want the team to be.
As we are on our way home from the State meet we can congratulate Isaac Swanson with a 25th place finish (16:39.0) and earning the All-State title, Brenden Seipke had a great race finishing just behind Swanson in 26th (16:39.7) and Noah Smith rounded out his season with a nice finish and a 17:21 5k time.
Walsberg, Kate 12
Kate Walsberg, from Two Harbors, came out as a 7th grader. She has been a long-standing member of our varsity girls’ team. She was an alternate this last season as some motivated young gals ended up filling the varsity positions. She helped set the stage for getting these girls faster, which is a huge aspect of the team component of this program. We appreciate her push and pull of the team to help her teammates get faster.
Crawford, Abbie 12
We will be losing Abbie Crawford from Cook County who came out for cross-country as an 11th grader playing both volleyball and running cross-country. She has been a great addition to the team. She has much determination and cares about her teammates deeply. She led the charge of the top of our JV team, which kept everyone on their toes, striving to work on improvement.
Erikson, Laura 12
Laura Erikson, from Two Harbors, was another volleyball player turned runner. Next year we will miss Laura’s ability to have a sense of what the team needs. She, too, kept the girls motivated as she was working as hard as she could to get on to the varsity team. She is a hard worker, and her continual positivity will be missed.
Callender, Ellen 12
Ellen Callender from Cook County came out as a 7th grader and strived for continual improvement. It was her senior year that she really learned what she was capable of pushing herself to the next level. It has been fun to watch Ellen develop positive leadership skills as she helped direct and guide her teammates.
Henrikson, Robin 12
Robin Henrikson from Cook County came out as a 7th grader. She has been an amazing leader and trusted guide of our JV team –leading many girls toward improvement and creating a forceful monster pack in our JV team, which brought them to win the JV conference division.
Schelmeske, Aurora 12
Aurora Schelmeske from Cook County has also been in cross-country for the long haul. With her, she brings great energy that gets everyone fired up at the start of races and hard workouts. We will miss that burst of energy.
Seipke, Brenden 12
Brenden Seipke, from Two Harbors, has been a pinnacle member of the boys’ varsity team since 7th grade. He has run at the state meet three times, and just this last weekend, he placed 26th just missing All-State honors. He is a true team leader. He has been a great public relations representative for our team within the section. He and Noah Smith built many relationships with kids on other teams, which has created a community of strong runners supporting each other and pushing each other to get faster within section 7A. He is well-known for his great effort and his positive motivational speeches. He was a humble MVP this past year and a captain. He will be greatly missed in many ways.
Smith, Noah 12
Noah Smith, Two Harbors, has also been a member of our boys’ varsity team since 7th grade. He has run State four times. He, along with teammate Jake Paron, set the stage for our team’s success these past few years, setting the stage for a tradition of excellence. He is a hard worker and was a wonderful captain.
DeArruda-Weaver, Henry 12
Henry DeArruda- Weaver, from Cook County, started running in 7th grade but also took some breaks to try some other sports. We were happy when he came back out and committed to cross-country. He always had his sights set on making the varsity team, which has not been easy. He never let setbacks get him down, and he just decided that he had to work harder. He was an alternate on our varsity team this past year for the section meet. He was also a great captain. We will miss his determination.
Holman, JC 12
JC Holman, from Two Harbors, came out as a 7th grader and set his goals high from the beginning. He was an influential member of our varsity team during his junior year, and he was part of our ever-changing varsity team this past season due to all the motivated kids who kept putting forth great performances. He has a true love of the sport, researching statistics and loving to talk through the strategies of the races. His passion for the sport and his sense of humor will be greatly missed.
Spry, Trent 12 JV
Trent Spry, from Cook County, has been a steady=eddy runner since 7th grade. He has great team spirit and dedication. Trent always completed the training sessions with those runners who qualified for the state meet and supported his teammates to the end. His teammates will miss his significant support.
Morrison, Keegan 12 JV
Keegan Morrison, from Cook County, joined cross-country later in his career. We wished he had started sooner as he has excellent potential. I always appreciated listening to his reflection about how his races went; he was always looking for ways to get better. We will miss that.
Sutton, Pete 12
Pete Sutton, from Cook County, finally came out his senior year. I had worked on him since 6th grade. He was actually pretty good; I just wished we would have had more time. He was never afraid to give this sport credit and talk about how hard the team works. That was much appreciated by his teammates.
The junior high boys and girls had an excellent season. They have a tremendous amount of energy and showed much potential moving forward. They won the junior high division of our Polar League Conference. We hope they are motivated to work over the summer to come back ready to give it all they have. We will have some varsity spots opening up, and this group has many great candidates to fill those positions, but it will take work.
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