Kate Walsberg pushes hard up a hill at the Milaca cross country meet. Kate placed 89th in a large field of runners. The course was muddy and slippery, with quite a few athletes taking spills. Photo courtesy of Allison Kate
The North Shore Storm traveled to Milaca last Saturday to participate in the largest high school cross-country race in the U.S., with more than 3,000 runners grades 7-12 competing over 5,000 meters.
Not only were the boys’ and girls’ squads facing extremely tough competition, they were also facing some tough weather. “It was a tough day,” said head coach April Wahlstrom. “There were storms and it was a mud bath, plus we had lots of stand out teams in our races.”
Girls’ varsity 5,000 meter race
Staples-Motley ran away with the girls’ crown in the Girls’ D3 team race, with their top five girls’ places adding up to 82 points. Meanwhile the North Shore Storm team finished seventh in the 25-team D3 division with 236 points.
Natasha Storland of ZMKW won the D3 individual crown with a time of 19:13.
Autumn Smith led the Storm with a 28th-place finish and a time of 21:41 for the 3.1-mile race. Cedar Gordon finished 35th in 22:19; Lamar Gordon was 49th in 22:46; Malin Anderson placed 54th in 22:56; Louise Ramberg placed 83rd in 23:43; Kate Walsberg finished 89th place in 23:57; and Anna Hay took 126th place with a time of 24:56.
Boys’ D3 varsity 5,000 meter race
LQPV-DB won the team race with 85 points while the North Shore Storm placed ninth with 295 points.
Although D3 is the second-smallest division at Milaca, the fastest boy in all four divisions came out of this race, and it wasn’t Greenway’s Geno Urbom, who is the defending state cross-country champion.
Urbom, now a junior, finished ninth. Virginia freshman Cameron Stocke placed third, while two runners from Staples-Motley placed first and second. Emmet Anderson, a junior, covered the muddy, rainslicked course in 16:22, running faster than anyone else on Saturday. Anderson beat his teammate Hunter Klimek by 28 seconds.
Brenden Seipke led the Storm with a 15th-place finish, crossing the line in 17:55. Noah Smith placed 26th in 18:34; Nate Bilben finished in 66th place in 19:13; JC Holmen placed 92nd in 20:10; Kevin Viren placed 106 in 20:29; Tate Crawford took 116th place with a time of 20:35; and Ian Thorpe placed 140th with a time of 21:09.
10th grade girls
Owatonna won the 10th grade girls’ race with 70 points. The North Shore Storm placed 16th in the field.
Kylie Viren finished in 129th place with a time of 27:36; Bryn Fitzgerald-We placed 130th in 27:40; Elsa Garry took 137th with a time of 27:46; Cecelia Chmelik placed 141 in 27:53; Greta Roth was the 199 finisher with a time of 30:54; and Amanda Haveri placed 240th in 37:07.
10th grade boys
Maple Grove won the 10th grade boys’ race with 67 points. The North Shore Storm team placed 25th with 660 points out of 33 teams.
Trenton Gomez placed 169th with a time of 22:03; Tristen Surbagh took 187th in 22:20; Gus Hahn was 198th in 22:36; Jonah Schmidt finished 254th with a time of 23:27; Danny Berka placed 262nd in 23:33; Haddon Taylor took 339th in 25:33; Silas Brandt finished in 369th place in 26:04.
9th grade boys
Robbinsdale Armstrong won the 9th grade boys’ team title with 73 points. Only four ninth graders finished the race for the North Shore Storm, so they couldn’t compete in the team races. Here are their places and times. Avery Zimmer took 413th in 31:26; Reed Cruikschank finished 420th in 34:51 and Silas Eckstrom placed 430th in 42:07.
8th grade boys
Waconia won the 8th grade boys race with 97 points. The Storm didn’t field a full team. Travis Elling finished 125th in 23:30; Andrew Hallberg placed 276th in 28:44; AJ Mattson placed 278 in 28:44.
8th grade girls and 9th grade girls
The Storm didn’t have any girls entered in these races.
7th grade girls
With only four girls running—you need five competitors to place in the team scoring—the North Shore squad didn’t field a full team, which was won by Prior Lake, who had 32 points.
Lexi Surbaugh placed 50th with a time of 25:31; Trinity Giddings took 67th in 26:14; Nadia Latvala finished 164th in 30:35; and Liv Hedstrom took 178th in 31:42.
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