A young North Shore Storm runner sprints for home in the Junior Varsity race. Staff photos/Brian Larsen
Big winds, light rain, a burly black bear, none of these could get in the way of the North Shore Storm boys and girls winning their inaugural home cross-country meet held September 3 on the Pincushion Mountain trails.
Teams competing against the North Shore Storm came from Cromwell and Moose Lake.
Under COVID-19 rules, only three teams compete against each other in cross-country races this fall.
The boys’ varsity race went out first and the Storm runners made quick work of the field, taking seven of the top ten places.
In a bit of a surprise, Jake Bilben outkicked Issac Swanson to place second behind Maverick Koecher of Moose Lake. Swanson placed 25th at state last year and was the team’s top returning runner, but Bilben, who worked in a restaurant all summer, ran consistently in the off-season and looks to be in good form.
Other top North Shore Storm runners were Ian Thorpe, fifth, Kevin Viren, sixth, Tate Crawford, seventh, Clay Thorpe, 14th, Kyler Hansen, 16th; and Elijah Smith, 20th.
Out in front and running strong are from L-R: Autumn Smith, Cedar Gordon, Louise Ramberg and in the back on the right, Lamar Gordon.
After the results were tabulated and the boys’ top five finishers places added up, the North Shore Storm won with 23 points. Cromwell placed second with 49 and Moose Lake third with 53.
The girls’ varsity race followed, and a special runner tried to enter midway. Louise Ramberg said a black bear appeared on the path about 30-40 yards ahead of the lead pack but quickly ducked into the woods. Louise said no one slowed for the bear, and the bruin apparently dropped from the field and would have been illegible to finish anyway because he/she wasn’t in uniform and wasn’t entered in the race.
A field of four North Shore Storm runners went to the front and stayed there for the first half of the 5K race. However, Addison Burchardt, an eighth-grader from Cromwell and Jillian Sadjak, a sophomore teammate, took control of the second half of the race to finish first and second.
The next three places went to North Shore Storm runners: Seniors Cedar Gordon, and Louise Ramberg, placed third and fourth while sophomore Lamar Gordon took fifth. Not far behind their teammates was Malin Anderson in seventh, Autumn Smith in eighth, Trinity Gordon in ninth and Olya Wright in tenth.
Malin Anderson pushes hard, running up hill in the Pincushion Classic cross country race held on September 3.
When the top five finishers for each team were added up, the ‘Storm won with 27 points; Moose Lake was second with 41, and Cromwell placed third with 66 points.
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