Left: Jerod Spry ran a 61.5 split in the 4×400 meter relay at the conference meet. Right: Alyssa Martinson ran a nice mile at Sections, finishing in 7:11.
The Cook County Track Team, 40 strong, headed down to Polar League Championships at the brand new Esko track on May 18. Although we knew we would not be in contention for the title against the Polar League track powers, we planned to score some points with top 8 placings. In addition, this meet served as the final tune up before the start of the state meet qualifying process.
Our top placer at the meet was freshman Leif Anderson, who broke through to the next level in the 400 meters, running an excellent 55.31 and finishing 4th. Showing that it was no fluke, he came back to run a 55.1 leg in the 4×400 meter relay, which was our most competitive boys’ relay. Along with Will Lamb 60.2, Jared Spry 61.5, and Jack Haussner 65.1 the team placed 8th.
Will Lamb was the other individual scorer on the boys’ side. He continued to improve his triple jump, going 36’ 4” for a 5th place finish. Freshman Jack Haussner also had a nice triple jump, going 33’5” for 12th. Other noteworthy performances for the boys’ team include Will’s 9th place in the 200-meter dash, 7th graders Kevin Viren and Tate Crawford running 5:48 and 6:05 in the mile, 8th grader Will Surbaugh running 11:35 in the 2 mile, and the 4×800 quartet of Will S., Leif, Andy Kern and Jack H. running 9:57 for 5th place.
Emily Jacobsen was the top girls’ scorer, throwing 28’ 9.5” in the shot put for 6th place. Alicia Smith had an excellent day throwing 25’ 7.5” for 10th in the shot and 72’9” for 13th in the discus.
Sophie Eliasen led the girls on the track, placing 8th in both the 400 and 800, with times of 66.4 and 2:40 respectively. Other strong running performances include 7th grader Louise Ramberg’s 6:16 mile, Claire LaVigne and Zoe Nonnmacher’s 14:24 and 14:59 100 meter dashes, Robin and Linnea Henrikson 100 and 300 meter hurdle performances and the 4×400 team of Sophie, Molly Thomas, Emily and Louise placing 7th in 4:41.
Both the boys and the girls ended up 9th in the 12-team field.
Five Vikings advance to Section 7A finals
After a good performance at the Polar Meet, the Vikings returned to the Esko track for the Subsection meet. Getting to the state meet is an enormous task in Track and Field. There is no team competition, only the top two in each event qualify for state.
Even getting to the section finals is tough. There are two subsections of 16 teams each, ranging from Moose Lake in the south, Crosby-Ironton in the west, and International Falls in the north and including all the Duluth and Iron Range Schools except a hand full of AA teams. The top seven individuals and four relay teams advance out of Subsections. We thought we could have as few as none and as many as seven advance. The windy, overcast and cold weather didn’t help.
It wasn’t until the middle of the meet that we got our first qualifiers. Freshman middle distance star Sophie Eliasen came in with the 7th fastest time in the 400-meter run, but blasted out of the blocks and hung on for an outstanding 65.7 second, 3rd place finish.
Not to be ignored, Molly Thomas qualified 6th out of the slow heat of the 400- meter run with a 67.8 in the bad conditions. Sophie came back two races later, and looked like a qualifier again in the 800 until teammate Maya McHugh nipped her at the finish by 7/100s of a second for 7th place in 2:38.6.
The final qualifier for the girls was junior Emily Jacobsen who threw the shot over 30’ for the first time, placing 6th.
For the boys, we had to wait until the meet was almost over to find out that Will Lamb’s 37’ 2.5” triple jump held up for 7th place.
Moving on then to the Section state-qualifying meet are Sophie Eliasen, Molly Thomas, Maya McHugh, Emily Jacobsen and Will Lamb.
Leif Anderson ran an excellent 55.3 400-meter dash against a stacked field to just miss with an 8th place finish. Contender Will Surbaugh ran personal bests of 5:11 in the mile and 11:44 in the 2 mile to just miss in both. Other solid performances for the Vikings include Vaughn Swindlehurst in the 800, Andy Kerns’ 6:05 mile, Kevin Viren and Trent Spry 12:42 and 13:23 respectively in the 2-mile run.
The girls’ distance group was well represented with Alyssa Martinson and Amelia Roth running 7:11 and 7:21 miles and Marin Hay setting a big personal best of 14:04 in the 2-mile. Our 4×400 relay team of Sophie, Maya, Emily and Molly placed a solid 7th in 4:43 and could have done better if they weren’t stuck in the slow heat with no one to push them. Our 4×800 team of Alyssa, Robin Henrikson, Tarin Hanson and Aurora Schelmeske placed 6th in 12:55, rounding out our top performances.
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