Getting a good start is always important in a cross country race, but settling quickly into a pace a runner can maintain for 3.1 miles is even more important. If a runner goes out too hard for too long they get the “big bear” on their backs and are reduced to a jog or a walk until they recover. So far this year April Wahlstrom’s boys’ and girls’ teams have figured out their pacing and both teams should do very well in the upcoming Section 7A meet.
The North Shore Storm junior varsity (JV) boys finished in fourth place, and the junior varsity girls finished in second place behind Duluth East.
JRon has been cross-training hard to come back from an injury, and he came back strong to earn the seventh spot on the varsity team for sections. Tamanaha finished fifth overall with a time of 19:35. Kevin Viren had a great day, finishing ninth in 19:43. Cameron MacKey had a solid race to end his season with a 27th place finish in 20:59.
Ian Thorpe, Chance Hanel, and Tristen Surbaugh tried the JV 5k (3.1 miles) race. Thorpe ran a 21:12 working with Andy Kern as a strong pack. Hanel finished in 22:20 followed by Surbaugh in 23:35—solid first 5k times for these junior high runners.
Lamar Gordan finished third in the girls’ JV race with her first 5k time of 22:57. Malin Anderson placed fifth in 23:20. Both of these girls earned the alternate position on the section team. Cece Chmelik ran her first 5k in 25:08. Robin Henrikson and Chloe Blackburn had strong races pushing each other and finishing in 26:15 and 26:16 for a season’s personal best. Another highlight was Abbey Stoddard, who cut off over 3.5 minutes on her 5k to finish out the season.
Above left: Lamar Gordon shows off the good running form that carried her to a third place finish in the girls’ junior varsity race at Proctor. Above right: Abbey Stoddard cut 3.5 minutes off of her best time at Proctor. Way to go, Abbey!
Our section meet will be on Thursday, October 26 in Cloquet. This will be an important day for us; the top two varsity teams in the section make it to state, which is our goal.
Come and cheer on North Shore Storm!
. In the latest state coaches poll, Jake Paron was ranked 10th for single A runners.
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