The second outdoor Track meet of the season was held in Two Harbors on May 4. Above: Jordan Zunker hands off to Bjorn Johnson in the relay. Left: Lars Scannell out of the starting blocks in the 200.
Some of you probably don’t know much about track and field meets, since we don’t have a track or any field event facilities in Cook County. In the old days of cinder tracks, almost every school had a track around their football field, sand pits to jump into for high, long and triple jumping, and someplace nearby to throw the round, heavy shot (8-12 lbs) and the saucer shaped discus. Although track remains the highest participant spring sport in US high schools, the change to high tech, expensive rubberized tracks, foam landing areas and much more expensive equipment has put modern track facilities out of the reach of many schools. Track flourishes despite the relative lack of facilities for a couple of reasons.
First, the activities are pretty basic – run the fastest, throw the farthest, jump the highest, etc. Second, there is something for almost everyone and every body type. Are you fast? That’s good—you have lots to choose from. Slower but persistent? Get in shape and run long distance. Big and strong? Throw the shot or discus. In between? Try hurdling or jumping. Into group activities? There are four different relays requiring four team members. And there is no bench in track— everyone participates—often more than they want to. It is also a great spectator sport— a real three-ring circus. A constant flow of 12 running events with simultaneous throwing and jumping activities nearby. Sometimes it is an organizational nightmare for coaches—you want to watch every event and give pointers to your athletes. You can’t, so you either have lots of assistants, or you run around like crazy trying to keep things slightly under control. At CCHS, we practice the latter method.
At our second outdoor meet of the season, at least both Coach April Wahlstrom and I could go to the meet and cover a little more ground. She handles the jumpers, and I help the throwers. And we all want to watch all the races, especially since all our jumpers and throwers also run.
At this meet, the Polar League track powers Esko and Two Harbors (not coincidently the two schools with track facilities) were expected to battle for the top, while we were generally in the mix with Barnum, Floodwood, McGregor, Silver Bay and Lakeview Christian Academy.
Our young throwers are coming along well. Freshmen Justin Goldstein and Peter Warren were in the middle of the varsity field with shot puts of 31’ 4” and 30’ 7” respectively. Eighth grader Levi Axtell is proving to be a natural in the discus, spinning it out to 80’1”.
Our only jumper at this meet, junior long jumper Amber Todd set a personal best (PB) of 13’ 8” to place fourth. She also ran the 100 hurdles in 20.2, just ahead of sister Rachel’s 22.1. Collin Berglund got our first hurdles place, sixth in 21.1 in the 110. In the boys’ 300 low hurdles, Lars Scannell ran a 56.0. Mara MacDonell ran 1:02.6 for the girls, while Grace Nelson picked herself up from a couple of bad falls and finished in 1:26.
Our sprinters are all very young, and/or very new to the sport. Peter made a big step up, however, placing a surprising second in the 200-meter dash, running 24.7 seconds. First year trackster Sebastian Schnobrich improved to 30.3. Peter also placed fifth in a very competitive 100, running 12.1. Collin and Justin ran 13.5 and 15.2 respectively. Seventh grader Ava McMillan has been our fastest sprinter, as she placed fifth in the 200 here, running 31.5. Emma Nalezny improved to 37.2. Emma returned to run the 100 in 16.8, with distance runner Kara Ramey giving sprints a try with a 16.3. Our girls’ sprint relay team of Amber Todd, Rachel Todd, Ava and Grace is improving steadily, placing fourth in both the 4×100 and 4×200 relays. Meanwhile our boys’ team of Collin, Bjorn Johnson, Sebastian, and Peter placed 4th in the 4×100, and Justin, Sebastian, Jordan Zunker and Bjorn were 6th in the 4×200.
Building on a strong fall cross country program, the majority of our team points come in the distance races. That shows up right away in the meet’s first race, the 4×800 relay. Most schools struggle to field one team each for boys and girls, while we had two each. Our girls’ A team of Molly Rider, Michele Weitz, Maggie McMillan and Ailee Larson were easy winners in 11:52. Our B team of Mara, Audrey Summers, Rose Ingebrigtsen and Katrina Axtell ran a fine 13:18. The boys’ A team of David Bergstrom, Ben Seaton, Daniel Ahrendt and Kieran Scannell was second in 9:42. The B team of Lino Rauzi, Lars, Levi Axtell and Jordan ran 11:30.
The boys’ two mile was our highest scoring event. Kieran ran away from the field with a 10:44. Ben was fourth in 12:27, and Daniel sixth in 12:47. As usual, Michelle led our girls by placing sixth in 13:54. Audrey ran 15:09 and Cheyenne Sorlie had a 16:20. We had a mob in the girls’ mile. Molly led us with a 6:46 – placing sixth. Maggie was next in 7:09, Cheyenne in 7:20, Rose in 7:24 and Katrina in 7:25. David placed fourth, a big PB of 5:12 in the boys’ mile, while Darren Waha was in the next pack with a 5:53.
Both of our 4×400 relay teams placed fourth. David, Darren, Bjorn and Lino ran 4:28, while Mara, Kara, Rose and Maggie ran 5:27.
Ailee ran the open 400 and 800 again. Against a tough field in the 400, she was out leaned at the tape, finishing second in 1:01.7—one of the best times in section 7A. Against a weaker field in the 800, she blasted away in the final 100 to win in 2:34.5. Kara ran a solid 1:21 in the 400. For the boys, Darren ran a 2:33 in the 800, with Lino a little back in 2:48. Jordan was our lone runner in the 400, running 1:15
Overall, the boys finished third in the team competition, while the girls were fourth.
Next up is the Polar League Junior High meet on Wednesday, May 12. We expect to collect a lot of awards there, especially in the ninth grade competition. A week later is the Polar League Championships back in Two Harbors. Thatshould be a real good gauge of where we stand in the Polar League as a team, and how our individuals stack up going into the state qualifying Section meets.
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