Left: On the girls’ varsity team, Michelle Weitz finished with her all-time best of 17:47. Above Left: David Bergstrom also had a big personal best, running 19:02. He also beat a number of runners who had finished ahead of him last week. Above Right: Freshman runner Kieran Scannell finished 27th in a huge field at the Milaca MegaMeet on Saturday, September 26, moving him to fifth on the all-time Vikings cross-country list.
When you go to the largest cross-country meet in the US, you rarely come home with any awards. This year wasn’t any different. Only Signe Larson and Sonja Peterson brought home top 25 awards (although Ailee Larson and Kieran Scannell were close). Our varsity girls had our best team place – eighth. Competition included five of the top 10 schools in the state. What we did bring home were a lot of personal bests, a good sign when we return to our area competition schedule.
Forty runners and a cara-van of 13 vehicles headed down to Milaca for the 3,500 runner MegaMeet, with a dinner stop in Two Harbors hosted by our teammates, and an overnight in Hinckley. Although it was rainy the night before, Saturday was sunny and warm. We set up our team tent near the start in the huge tent village on the Stone’s Throw Golf Course. With a powerful sound system keeping the beat all day and tons of food from family and friends, we were ready.
Our eighth grade boys’ team was up first, and they got a big break. The golf cart lead-ing the race made a wrong turn and cut the race from two miles to about 1¼. None of our boys complained, as Joey Chmelik led the Vikings placing 68th in the 160-boy field in 8:40. He was followed by Sam Sworski in 9:02, Daniel Ahrendt in 9:09, Luke Fenwick in 9:43 and Lars Scannell in 10:08. The boys placed 12th of 49 teams.Our seventh grade boys (actually our guys are all sixth graders) were hoping for a short run too, but unfortu-nately the cart driver had been replaced. Pete Summers led the young Vikings, placing a very good 39th in the 160-boy field, running two miles in 13:38. Joe Rauzi was next in 15:02, followed by Ben Resek in 15:37, Sean MacDonell in 16:43, Roman Schnobrich in 16:50 and Will Seaton in 17:32. Our youngest boys placed 10th of 49 teams.
The ninth grade Vikings girls’ team was in the next race. I think they ran pretty well, but we might never know. The high tech timing system messed up, and no results were available. If I remember right, Audrey Summers led our girls in about 16:40, followed by Mara MacDonell, Kara Ramey, CC Schnobrich and Rose Ingebrigtsen.
File photos/Rhonda Silence
The JV races are the biggest of the day, with 350 in the boys’ race and 250 in the girls’. Brothers Alex and Daniel Ditmanson led our boys with varsity quality times of 22:42 and 22:48. First year runner Sebastian Schnobrich improved over one minute from last week, running 28:14 for 3.1 miles. For the girls, Amber Todd was once again our leader in 21:38 for 2.5 miles, with a vastly improved Katrina Axtell right behind in 21:51; Sarah O’Phalen next in 22:40 and Cheyenne Sorlie closing with a big sprint to catch two girls at the finish in 26:09. All the JV runners have made major improvements from last week.
The 150-runner field for varsity boys’ race included five state ranked teams, just like the girls. The boys are working hard to improve their times and place this year, led by freshman star Kieran Scannell. Kieran missed qualifying for state by three places last year and is aiming to qualify this year. As usual, the field set off at an unsustainable pace in the first quarter mile. Kieran was in the top quarter with our next four boys in the middle and our other two varsity runners near the back. Kieran moved up steadily during the race, while David Bergstrom pulled away from teammates Josh Ensign, Drew Holmen and Leif Gilsvik. Darren Waha and Ben Seaton ran steady, within sight of each other. Kieran finished 27th in a personal best of 17:52, moving him up to fifth on the all-time Viking cross-country list. In the process, he beat a couple of Section 7A runners he had lost to last week. David also had a big PB, running 19:02, just missing the alltime list cut-off of 18:59. He also beat a number of runners who had finished ahead of him last week. Josh, Drew and Leif all had solid runs, finishing in 19:43, 19:50 and 20:07 respectively. That was the first time Josh and drew had broken 20. Darren and Ben also had personal bests of 21:15 and 21:36 respectively. The boys finished 17th in the 30 team field.
Our varsity girls want to get to state this year, after just missing last year. Esko and Crosby-Ironton qualified last year, with Esko being the favorite this year. Crosby wasn’t at Milaca, while Esko was missing their number three, four and five runners (top five count for team score). There was plenty of other competition however, including state ranked Fairmont, Adrian, Mora, Park Rapids and St. Cloud Cathedral.
From the beginning, our girls positioned themselves well. Sonja Peterson led Ailee and Signe Larson in the top quarter; Michelle Weitz and Shelby Ahrendt near the middle and Molly Rider and Amber Fletcher back in the pack. Our number four runner Anna Schield was out with a strained stomach muscle. Our top three girls fared well against Esko’s top two.
Signe led us in 21st, right behind Esko’s number one, Sonja Peterson was next in 25th, ahead of Esko’s number two with Ailee right behind in 33rd. While Signe and Sonja were just off their bests, Ailee recorded her best of 16:48 for 2.5 miles, ninth on the Viking list. Michelle had her all time best of 17:47, while Shelby, returning from a week off ran a solid 19:07. Molly finished right behind her, with Amber back 10 places in 19:47. Each of our top three girls has led the team in our first three meets.
We’re anxious to continue our improvement and test the competition at the big Swain Invitational at Enger Park golf course in Duluth on Saturday, October 3. Come cheer our Vikes!
Thursday, October 8, 2009 4 : 0 0 PM · AwAY v s . Hibbing
Leave a Reply