Above: Looking strong, Sarissa Falk led the Viking girls’ team with a third place finish in the varsity race. Sarissa finished far ahead of all of the other Class A runners in the field. Not far behind Sarissa in this picture is teammate Matea Acero, and three runners behind Acero is Sarah Shied. The girls’ team placed third and with some improvement has a chance to qualify for state this year. Left: Roman Schnobrich had a good day on the trails, placing 14th in the junior varsity race.
A large crowd of locals gathered to watch Kieran Scannell take on Proctor’s Matt Welch at the Cook County High School Invitational held on the Pincushion Mountain trails in Grand Marais. Scannell set the 5K course record of 16:59 as a sophomore but transferred to a private high school out east where he has continued to compete in track and cross country.
Two years ago as sophomores the two were even. Welch was about a half step ahead of Scannell in cross country and a half step behind Scannell in track. As juniors each ran 16:02 for 5K in cross country, but Scannell lost some ground to Welch on the track. As a sophomore Scannell ran 4:25 in the mile but could do no better as a junior. As a junior Welch ran 4:22 in the mile and 9:23 in the 3,200 meters. He finished second at state in that event in the Class A division.
So how would they stack up against each other this year?
Because Scannell no longer attends CCHS he had to run as an independent. And before getting too far into this, it should be noted that Duluth East with its roster of 98 boys and girls, along with Cromwell, Hibbing, Carlton, Lakeview Christian and South Ridge were also in attendance. Yet none of these schools had athletes that could compete with either Scannell or Welch, so when the gun went off it was clearly a two-man race.
Above: Kieran Scannell (white shirt) and Matt Welch from Proctor renewed an old rivalry at the Cook County High School Invite held at Pincushion Mountain on Thursday, August 30. Welch got the best of Kieran on this day and will be a favorite to win the Minnesota boys’ cross-country state championship.
Welch led Scannell by a step or two going up the first big hill. Coming through the first mile Welch started to separate from Scannell, who had a big lead over third and fourth place runners from Duluth East.
By the second mile the race was over. Welch had a huge lead on the field and looked comfortable running 5-minute miles on the hilly, rocky, grassy, sometimes- hard- to- findgood footing terrain. When he crossed the finish line in a new record of 16 minutes and 8 seconds, Welch showed his class by staying at the finish line and shaking the hand of the kids who came in behind him.
For his part, Scannell was nowhere near his best, finishing in 17:28. Still, it was a good effort and fun for fans to watch these two racing against each other once again. Like Welch, Scannell is a hard-nosed competitor who is gracious in victory or defeat.
Ben Seaton led the boys’ team with a 14th place finish averaging 6:19 per mile for the 5K race. He was followed by Joey Chmelik, 18th; Levi Axtell, 19th; Will Seaton, 35th; Collin Berglund, 39th; Nate Carlson, 44th; Owen Cruickshank, 47th; Drew Christiansen, 48th and Everett Hommes, 49th. The boys finished fourth with 90 points while East won with 25 points.
In the girls’ race, local favorite Sarissa Falk had her best cross country race ever, finishing a strong third behind two girls from Duluth East. Not too far behind Falk were Matea Acero and Sara Shied, who finished in 13th and 14th place. Rounding out the team were Morgan Weyrens-Welch, who was 23rd, Abby Seipke, 36th, and Mara MacDonell who placed 41st.
The girls finished third in the team standings with 73 points. East won with 30 points and South Ridge was second with 61 points. Scores are based on adding up each team’s top five finishers.
Ninth-grader runner Pete Summers displayed some of the talent his coaches talk about when he ran away from the field in the 2.6-kilometer junior high boys’ race. Summers finished in 10:08.1 to average 6:16 mile pace and won by14 seconds over Bjorn Larson of Duluth East. Seventhgrader Andy Kern finished in 37th place with a fine time of 14 minutes.
Placing first and second in the girls’ junior high race were Maya McHugh and Alyssa Martinson. McHugh covered the 2.6 kilometers in 11:25.5 to average 7:03 per mile, while Martinson trailed her by 3 seconds. Ruby Walsberg and Julia Larsen also ran well for the junior high team.
Roman Schnobrich paced 13th in the junior varsity boys’ 4K, while Meadow Adams placed 6th in the JV girls’ 4K.
After the meet, Head Coach April Wahlstrom said, “Top surprise was Maya McHugh and Alyssa Martinson [7th graders]. Both are new to the sport and show a great work ethic and are ready to go. Meadow Adams also had a nice showing and will probably be moving up to the varsity in the next few meets.”
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