The three top boys for the North Shore Storm, Jake Paron (in front), Will Surbaugh and Noah Smith (glasses) got off to a great start in a recent cross country race. With sections coming up, the team is starting to get ready to peak. Paron will be a favorite to win the section race and if he stays healthy should finish in the top 10 at state in the Class A race.
“We were blasted with heat again on Saturday, September 23, but our North Shore kids hung in there for some successful races,” said North Shore Storm head cross country coach April Wahlstrom.
Three Storm runners headed to the Roy Griak race at the University of Minnesota and experienced some fierce competition.
“Jake Paron, Noah Smith, and Will Surbaugh got to run with some of the top runners in Minnesota and other surrounding states,” Wahlstrom said. “Jake came in 29th out of 433 runners with a time of 17:01. Only nine of the runners who beat him were from Minnesota schools, all of which were from the cities.
“Noah Smith finished in 141st with a time of 18:08 and Will Surbaugh finish in 218th with a time of 18:37. This will be an important race for these runners as they prep for making it onto the state meet since it is different racing by yourself versus competing with opponents breathing down your neck,” said Wahlstrom.
Giving it her all as she sprints to the finish is Autumn Smith.
Meanwhile, at the Milaca Mega Meet the rest of the Storm runners were striving for their best while dealing with the heat.
“Our varsity girls’ team had the best showing of the day as a team,” said Wahlstrom. “They finished in 5th place out of 25 teams in the 2A competition.”
The top-ranked team in the state, Fairmont, won the team title. They were followed by Lake City, LQPV-DB, and Mora. “We finished in front of Proctor who we hadn’t beaten yet this season. This is the highest a varsity team has finished in the 17 years that we have been attending this meet,” said the coach.
Leading the Storm girls were Autumn Smith, who finished 17th with a time of 21:42, and Cedar Gordon was close behind in 23rd with a time of 22:02. Louise Ramberg was in 33rd with a time of 22:18 and following closely behind was Kate Walsberg in 62nd with a time of 23:14, and Maya McHugh was in 64th in 23:18.
Rounding out our team was Izzy Schottenbauer in 89th with a time of 24:06 and Claire Lavigne in 93rd with a time of 24:15.
“These girls are running close together. They are trusting each other, and they are respecting that each of them may have strong days on a different day so they can pull each other along. They are indeed running as a team,” Wahlstrom said.
Other strong races came from Isaac Swanson in the 10th-grade race who finished 36 out of 371 runners in 19:19. He was followed by Brenden Seipke in a time of 19:57. Malin Anderson led Storm 9th-grade girls; she finished 50th out of 217 with a time of 25:09. Hazel Oberholtzer was close behind in 73rd place with a time of 25:50. Leif Anderson finished in 93rd out of 637 with a time of 19:49. JRon Tamanaha finished in 108th with a personal best time of 20:02.
The team’s next race will be on Thursday, September 28 in Hibbing. “We will be resting some of our varsity kids from racing so we can get them primed for our conference meet in a few weeks,” Coach Wahlstrom said.
Leave a Reply