Top left: Abigale Seipke placed 35th at Sections. Top middle: Brenden Seipke set a PR with a 19:15 5K at Sections. Left: Matea Acero barely missed going to State. She finished 13th at the Section meet, two spots away from qualifying. Above: Jake Paron had a fantastic run at the State cross country meet where he placed 10th in a new PR of 16:34.
On Thursday, October 29, the Vikings raced their hearts out at the Section 7A race in Cloquet.
The girls’ race was first and going into it, South Ridge looked like the strongest team but as the race wrapped up, Proctor came in first followed by Ely with South Ridge only able to send one runner as their team finished third. In 4th place was Carlton, in 5th place was Moose Lake/Willow River/ Barnum followed by our Cook County-Two Harbors Vikings in 6th place out of 14 teams. All of our seven runners finished within the top 60, which is pretty amazing.
Matea Acero finished in 13th place. Acero missed qualifying for the state meet by two places. Despite this disappointment for Acero she had a huge personal record (PR) 5k with a time of 20:53 and she executed a beautiful race.
Isabel Schottenbauer finished in 20th place and set a new PR with a time of 21:25. Abigale Seipke finished in 35th and also set a new PR with a time of 22:11. Louise Ramberg was our fourth runner of the day, she finished in 43rd with an improved time by over a minute of 22:30. Kate Walsberg finished in 52nd (23:02), Maya McHugh in 55th (23:11), and Emily Seipke in 60th (23:28).
The boys’ race was exciting. At the start, Greenway- Nashwauk looked like one of the stronger boys’ teams but to our surprise they came in 2nd and Ely finished in first place. Eveleth-Gilbert finished in 3rd place, Proctor was in 4th place, Esko was in 5th place followed by Moose Lake/Willow River/Barnum and our Cook County-Two Harbors Vikings were in 7th place out of 16 teams.
Paron takes first place at Sections
Jake Paron has had a recurring knee injury so we have rested him for a few races. His goal on this day was to make it to State. He needed to sit at the back of the first pack and finish strong. With about a mile and a half left of his race, Paron could no longer sit back. His competitive drive took over and he moved into the lead. Paron finished in first place with a time of 17:08.
Noah Smith finished in 21st with a time of 18:17. Will Surbaugh came in 44th with a new personal best time of 18:59. Brenden Seipke also finished with a new personal best time of 19:15 in 53rd place. Leif Anderson chopped some more time off of his 5k, he finished in 67th with a time of 19:52. Thatcher Sunday finished in 90th place in 20:23 followed by teammate Sam Libby in 105th place in 21:39.
Paron heads to State
On Saturday, November 7, Jake Paron had an opportunity to race the State meet. Paron’s goal at the State meet at Northfield was to go out at the back of the top pack, which would start him in 25th to 30th place, settle in and then start moving up towards the top 10. He did a great job racing. Starting in the perfect position, Paron moved up to 17th and then with about a mile left he moved up to 14th and with 800 meters to go he had moved into 10th place. He ran smoothly and quickly all the way up the finishing hill and into the finish line. He set a new personal best with a time of 16:34.
The winner of the boys’ race was Zack Emery from La Crescent in 16:07. The winning time for the girls’ race was from Grace Ping from Cotter. Ping ran 17:52 and she will be one to watch in the coming years. Erika Fox from Carlton was the top finisher from our section and she finished in 4th place with a time of 18:55.
Leave a Reply