The combined Cook County/Two Harbors cross country team begins its competitive season with the annual Pincushion Classic held at Pincushion Mountain on Thursday, September 3. Races will start at 2 p.m.
As always the meet will have both large and small schools attending, with regional juggernaut Duluth East leading the way with as many as 100 runners entered in the varsity, junior varsity and sophomore races.
The home meet should be a good test for Coach April Wahlstrom’s squads, and should give her an early indication for how competitive her teams will be this year. But the coach knows one thing, with 16 kids from Two Harbors and another 34 from Cook County, she has the numbers out and enough strong individual runners on each squad to make this an interesting season.
“On the boys’ side our strongest runner is Jake Paron, an 11th grader from Two Harbors. He has been growing by leaps and bounds over the last few years,” said Wahlstrom. “He is a very fun kid to coach and has really started to trust his abilities and push himself both in practice and on the race course. He was a state contender last year and is looking to make the trip back there in November.
“Noah Smith, an 8th grader from Two Harbors, has some great talent, mental toughness, but most importantly a really great work ethic. He will be one of our strongest runners this year and we are hoping that he will be knocking on the door to the state meet.
“On the girls’ side our two strongest runners coming in to the season are Matea Acero, 12th grader from Cook County. She has maintained an injury free status and she too has a really strong work ethic. Abi Seipke, 12th grader from Two Harbors, is coming into the season looking strong. This gal is a hard worker but she also has a really strong mental toughness that is fun to watch.”
Because of the great distance (85 miles) between the two schools, Dan Hebi and Micaiah Schebuert are coaching the Two Harbors runners in Two Harbors. The last week of August, however, 38 runners will attend cross country running camp at the end of the Gunflint Trail and the kids from the two schools will work out together and the new kids will get acquainted.
Once again Wahlstrom will field young teams, but on the boys’ side they will be without the very talented Kiviok Hight, who moved away. Despite that, Wahlstrom remains positive and enthusiastic.
“We have a large amount of young kids out and our team is growing greatly. What fun! I always hope that these athletes walk away with a joy of running, good friends and a newfound pride in their ability to be able to push themselves to the next level when they don’t know if they can.
A successful season would be accomplishing those goals. It would be great to have some kids achieve the All Conference title and it would be great to send a couple to the state meet,” said Wahlstrom.
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