North Shore Storm, above from left: Jake Peron wins! Louise Ramberg placed 6th to lead the girls’ team. Putting on a big kick, Andy Kern looks strong. JC Holman makes a turn for the big hill. Left: Sprinting to the finish are junior high racers Sidni Hendron, Justin Peron, Zoe Nonnemacher.
Jake Paron ran away from the boys’ varsity field at the North Shore Challenge held September 1 on the Pincushion Mountain trail system leading the boys’ North Shore Storm team to a second place finish in the eight-team field. The places of the top five runners from each team are added up to determine the team’s finish.
Paron, a junior from Two Harbors, broke Kieran Scannell’s team record for the rugged 5K (3.1 miles) course by two seconds with his winning time of 16:56, averaging 5:27 per mile.
Ethan Olson of Moose Lake placed second in 17:09 and Arthur Andrew of Duluth East finished third with a time of 17:52.
While Paron’s time was a new North Shore Storm record, it wasn’t close to the 16:08 course record posted by Matt Welch of Proctor in 2012. Welch, who runs for the University of Minnesota today, won the state cross country meet that year.
Other top Storm runners were Noah Smith, 5th in 18:47; Will Surbaugh 13th in 19:26; Leif Anderson 21st in 19:56; Thatcher Sunday, 33rd in 20:31; Sam Libby, 37th in 20:36.
Mighty Duluth East brought 105 runners to the meet and easily won both the boys’ and girls’ varsity team races. East’s girls finished with 17 points to the Storm’s 69 points. East boys won with 28 points to the Storm’s 49 points.
All told 288 runners took part in the races.
CCHS eighth-grader Louise Ramberg led the girls’ team with her sixth-place finish, crossing the line in 21:53. Louise averaged 7:02 per mile for the 5K race, which was won by Molly Weberg of Duluth East in 19:56.
Other top finishes for the Storm were Maya McHugh, 14th in 23:10; Kate Walsberg, 23rd in 24:21; Isabel Schottenbauer, 28th in 25:23; and Marin Hay, 39th in 27:001.
Speedy junior high races
Elijah Squires of South Ridge won the boys’ junior high 2.6K race in 10:12. JC Holman was the top Storm runner with his 7th place finish in 10:40. JC was followed by teammates Kevin Viren, 9th in 10:49; Tate Crawford, 12th in 11:06; Trent Spry, 21st in 11:22; Jack Willis, 40th in 12:45; Justin Paron, 46th in 13:26; and Lucas Pinnell, 53rd in 17:08.
Courtney Werner of Proctor won the girls’ 2.6k race in 10:52. North Shore Storm runners grabbed the next three spots. Autumn Smith placed 2nd in 11:18; Cedar Gordon finished 3rd in 11:19; and Robin Henrikson was 4th in 12:07.
Other Storm finishers include Saira Smith, 8th in 12:43; Sidni Hendren, 11th in 13:24; Zoe Nonnemacher, 12th in 13:26; Ellen Callender, 20th in 14:05; Chloe Blackburn, 21st in 14:39; Abbey Stoddard, 22nd in 14:55; Amanda Haveri, 23rd in 15:12; Aspen Huddleston, 24th in 15:21; and Elsa Garry placed 25th in 16:06.
South Ridge runner Ben Crettol won the boys’ 4K in 15:11. Top Storm runners were Andy Kern, 5th in 16:05; Jron Tamanah, 10th in 16:32; Jack Viren, 11th in 16:33; Christian Beamer, 13th in 16:41; Sam Meyer, 23rd in 18:22; and David Blackburn, 27th in 18:57.
Makayla McGregor of Proctor was the girls’ junior varsity champ with a 4K time of 18:37. The Storm’s Brooklyn Smith was the only 4K entrant and placed 15th in 21:46.
The combined cross country running teams of Cook County High School (CCHS) and Two Harbors have been racing and training together for the last several years under the CCHS Vikings banner, this year they decided to change their name to the more fitting North Shore Storm.
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