Photos by Mike Larson Top: 3-peat! The Viking cross-country running girls won the 13-team Hibbing Invitational for the third year in a row on Thursday, October 8, 2009. (L-R, front) Mercedes Leininger, Anna Schield. (L-R, back) Shelby Ahrendt, Molly Rider, Ailee Larson, Sonja Peterson, Michelle Weitz.
I could get used to this. The girls’ cross country team “three-peated” by easily winning the 13-team Hibbing Invitational for the third year in a row, while Kieran Scannell earned his first varsity win at the same meet. But I know better. Outright wins are rare in cross-country, as every meet involves at least seven teams, and as many as 40. This is the seventh championship for this group of girls over the last three years. In the prior eight years of our cross-country program, the girls’ teams had one win and the boys’ teams two. Likewise, individual titles are rare. Reed Lehto racked up nine varsity titles during his all-state career, while Signe Larson and Losha Senty had our only other wins last year. But we are going to savor it while we can—and get a few more this year.
The radical change of weather in October has been a difficult adjustment. We went from gorgeous summertime running and sunning in September to cold, rain, wind and even a little snow in October. Hibbing was all of that—especially cold and windy. Hibbing also meant a change in running strategy. After last week’s hilly Swain Invite in Duluth, we were facing the flattest course of the season at Hibbing Municipal Golf Course. We refer to it as a track meet disguised as a cross-country run. Our strategy would be a little different, as we had to stay in touch a little more, rather than count on the competition dying on the hills. Thegirls also had to get by without last year’s leader, state meet qualifier Signe Larson, out with a lower leg injury. Since our major rival Esko was missing a number of their top girls, we were fairly confident. But you still have to run the race.
And run it we did. Sonja Peterson and Ailee Larson took off right behind the leaders, while Anna Schield, Michelle Weitz and Shelby Ahrendt were in the top third, with Molly Rider, Mercedes Leininger and Amber Fletcher near the middle of the pack.
Junior varsity runners (they ran with varsity but scored separately) Rose Ingebrigtsen, Amber Todd, Katrina Axtell, Sarah O’Phelan and Cheyenne Sorlie were spread throughout the field. They finished pretty much that way.
Ailee was fourth in 16:16, another big improvement for her. Sonja was three places back in 16:38, another very solid run for her. Anna was 14th in 17:26, a nice return after missing almost two weeks. Michelle, an extremely reliable runner this year, like Sonja, was 16th in 17:50, while Shelby had her best run ever, 18:00, and placing 19th. Mercedes had at outstanding run of 17:27, while Amber F. had a big personal best of 18:44 and Molly ran a nice 19:09.
In her first JV race, Rose ran 20:37. Amber T. 21:37, Katrina 22:30, Sarah 23:12 and Cheyenne 25:09, all had near or best ever performances.
Thevarsity girls easily won the team title 46-75 over second place International Falls, while the JV girls tied for second with Proctor, two points behind I. Falls.
The varsity/JV boys followed immediately after the girls. We knew this race would be tough, as perennial state power Eveleth always takes the pace out fast, and Virginia and Esko are challenging them. It is also confusing at Hibbing, since class AA (Duluth East Superior, Hibbing etc.) run with class A, with only the results separating the classes. You never know quite where you are in the race.
At the gun, Superiors’ top two boys, Hibbing’s two returning state meet runners, Guthrie Cunningham from East (a former teammate of ours from the Silver Bay days) and the Eveleth contingent were off at breakneck pace. Kieran was tucked back in about 20th, trying to stay comfortable, a tough thing to do at 5:30 mile pace. David Bergstrom and Drew Holmen were running very close together, like Siamese twins joined at the elbow, while Josh Ensign was hanging tight behind them. Leif Gilsvik was off to his best start of the year, with Ben Seaton lurking in the back half and first time varsity runner Alex Ditmanson trying to stay with Ben. Daniel Ditmanson was working hard to keep brother Alex in sight and Sebastian Schnobrich ran his steady pace, working to improve in every race in his first season.
As we got into the third and final lap, Kieran had gradually moved up to about 10 in the combined AA-A field. As we ran over to the finishing stretch (watching and coaching cross-country requires a lot of running from point to point on the multi lap courses), I started counting the number of A boys in front of him. There were just three and they were all right in front. I hollered that to Kieran; he dug deep for the next running gear, and caught them all in the final 100 yards for the win. Meanwhile, Drew and David finished 19th and 21st, both in 18:41 with big career bests for both of them. In fact, all the boys’ varsity runners had career bests except Kieran – hum, maybe he was just setting up that big finish? Josh was 28th in 19:09. Leif was 38th at 19:38, Ben 57th in 20:33 and Alex 72nd in 22:10. With all the great individual efforts, the boys finished third in the team competition. Meanwhile, Daniel ran a 22:32 and Seb 26:06.
In the junior high races, Audrey Summers led the girls in the 1.85-mile race with a 14:38, placing ninth, while CC Schnobrich was 15th in 15:58. Joey Chmelik led the boys for the fourth time this season in 12:32, placing 12th in the big boys field – guess we should consider bumping him up to the JV race? Daniel Ahrendt kept him in sight in 12:53. Joe Rauzi and Luke Fenwick finished together in 13:53, with Ben Resek a little back in 14:16. Roman Schnobrich and Will Seaton rounded out our racers, running together in about 15:40.
At press time on Wednesday, October 14, the Viking cross-country team was running in the seven-team Polar League meet at the Pincushion trails in Grand Marais.
Come cheer our Vikes!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
4:00 PM ·
AWAY
vs. Proctor Lions
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