Photos by Karen Lehto Top: Ida Gulbrandsen takes the baton from Adrianna Berglund. Lower left: Michelle Weitz ran season-best times in the one and two-mile races. Lower right: David Bergstrom and his teammates held on for a second in the 4×800 relay.
The CCHS track team journeyed down to Two Harbors on Wednesday, May 13 for the 11 team Polar League Track Championships. It was rainy, foggy, windy and cold in Grand Marais when we left, but sunny, 70 and breezy in Two Harbors for the meet. It almost felt like spring.
We knew the meet was going to be tough for us as most of our team is either brand new to track, or young, or both. But the kids’ attitude has been great all season, and we had a few contenders that had a decent chance to place well.
The first of the contenders was the boys’ 4×800 relay. Kieran Scannell gets us off to a great start, sitting in with the leaders from Esko, Moose Lake and Two Harbors on the first lap, before moving into the lead on the second lap with a 2:13 leg. He handed off to David Bergstrom, whose goal was to hang on to second place, as Esko had their best runner in the second leg. David was successful, running a 2:27 and handing off to Darren Waha. Darren maintained second with a fine 2:36 run, before handing off to Losha Senty who cruised to a 2:09. All four runners had their best performances of the season, as the Vikings finished second behind Esko, the defending Section 7A champions.
The girls’ 4×800 team was missing top runners Martha Wilkes and Kristin Ramey, however Ida Gulbrandsen and Emily Martin filled in very well, as the girls, led by Michelle Weitz and Mara MacDonell placed sixth in 12:44, only three seconds off their season best. Meanwhile, our sprinters were in action. In the girls’ 100, Amber Todd ran a season best of 15.2, with Adrianna Berglund running 16.9 and Cheyenne Sorlie 18.7. Peter Warren ran a 13.6 for the boys. Amber ran 33.7 in the 200, followed by Cheyenne with a season best of 40.5 and Jordyn Kirk in 42.7. 8th grader Peter led our boys in the 200 with a 28.4, while fellow eighth grader Bjorn Johnson ran 30.9.
Next up was Viking middle distance ace Losha in the 800. Thefield was very tough, with many time state meet runner Jordan Smith of Cromwell and top area runners from Floodwood and Moose Lake entered. Our strategy was to have Losha tail Jordan. Everything looked great on the first lap, but when Jordan moved Losha hesitated and got stuck in the pack. Finally picking it up near the end of the second lap, Losha moved up to take fourth in 2:12.5, a little disappointing. Seventh grader Cy Fortunato has his best time in the 800, running a 3:05.4. Doing triple duty for the Vikings, Michelle placed eighth in both the one and two miles, running season bests of 6:28 and 13:58 despite the windy conditions. Emily Martin continued her improvement, running 17:12. On the boys’ side, David improved on his mile time, running 5:39, while Ben Seaton ran 6:12.
On paper, the boys’ two mile looked like a walkover for Esko’s Jackson Lindquist, who came in with a 40 second season best lead on the Viking Kieran Scannell, with a couple of Cromwell runners close behind. We decided to have Kieran go for it, hanging on to Jackson as long as possible, then giving ground slowly if need be. Going through the first mile in 5:15, Kieran had executed the plan perfectly. He was obviously tired, and dropped back about 50 yards on the next two laps. Recovering, he picked up about 10 yards on the seventh lap. As the gun signaling the last lap went off, Kieran went for it. Although he came up three seconds short, he registered a big personal best of 10:49.5, and marked himself as top distance runner on the track Darren and Joey Chmelik both improved on their two-mile times, running 12:53 and 13:47 respectively.
In the other relays, the young boys’ team of Peter, Bjorn, Lars Scannell and Ben placed a respectable seventh in the 4×200, while Losha, David, Lars and Ben were ninth in a tough 4×400. The girls scored points in their other relays (top 8) by placing sixth in the 4×100 (Amber, Adrianna, Cheyenne and Mara), eighth in the 4×200 (Amber, Cheyenne, Mara and Jordyn), and seventh in the 4×400 (Amber, Ida, Mara and Jordyn). In the field events, new jumpers Amber and Mara long jumped 11-8 and 10-7, while Lars jumped 11-7.
Overall, the boys placed eighth and the girls 10th. Next week, the Vikings will be running Subsection at UMD. With nearly 20 teams, the competition will be even tougher. A top seven finish in individual events or a top four finish in the relays is required to move on to the Section finals. Go Vikings!
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