The Cook County Vikings track team headed over to Virginia for our fourth meet of the season, the first time we had raced there in almost 10 years, back in the days of three, rather than two subsection races. We were looking forward to competing against Iron Range teams that we don’t normally see until the Section finals. We knew Virginia and Chisholm have strong sprint teams, while International Falls and Eveleth are typically strong top to bottom. Unfortunately it was another cool, windy, rainy day – just like every other meet this spring.
As always, the meet started with the 4×800 relay, typically the strongest relay event for the distance-deep Viking squad. Teammates Ben Seaton, Joey Chmelik and Levi Axtell all ran solid 2:20 legs to keep the Vikings in contention the entire race, allowing anchor Nate Carlson to run a brilliant leg to place 4th in a season best of 9:25. Similarly, Matea Acero, Morgan Weyrens-Welch and Jessica Berg-Collman set up Audrey Summers’ excellent 2:45 anchor leg, propelling the girls to a 5th place finish in a season best 11:32.
Our sprinters took center stage next, with stars Molly Zafft and Peter Warren leading the Vikings. A headwind and the cool rainy conditions kept times slow, but the competition was tough. Warming up for the race, Molly commented she had three goals this year— to actually win a race, to earn all-conference honors, and to return to state. Blowing out of the starting blocks, she led from the start, winning in 13.5. She can cross the first goal off her list.
Peter also had an outstanding start, but couldn’t hold off top Virginia sprinter Cade Stackpool, finishing 1/10 behind in 11.8. He also got out well in the 200, but surprisingly couldn’t hold his speed as well, finishing 5th in 24.7. His younger brother Noah got his feet wet, running 27.6 for a top half finish. Meanwhile Molly doubled-back in the 400—not her favorite event—hanging on to 2nd with a good time of 64.8. Jessica, our jack-ofall trades, squeezed the 200 into her busy schedule, placing 6th in 30.5. Other strong sprint performances included Cy Fortunato’s 61.6 in the 400, as well as Emily Jacobson’s 77.9 in the girls 400—big personal bests for both runners.
Meanwhile the distance runners were busy scoring for both the boys and girls. We switched the boys around from their normal events, and were very pleased with the results. Levi, the beast among our distance runners, placed 4th in his first 2 mile in 11:38, a couple days after he ran a 1:31 half marathon at Ham Lake.
Joey moved down to the 800 and ran a very competitive 2:20 for 5th place. He likes this event!
Ben, working his way down to a 5:00 mile, finished 10th in the toughest field of the day with a 5:17.
Matea led the girls with a big PR of 13:18, good for 4th, with Morgan a short distance back in 7th at 14:04. Audrey was her usual steady self, placing 6th in the mile at 6:17. Molly Thomas led our contingent of 7th grade girls, including Alyssa Martinson and Sarah Toftey, as they finished 9-10-11 in the 800 with times of 3:05, 06 and 07. Other top distance performances included Roman Schnobrich’s 2:44 800, Will Lamb and Jack Viren’s 6:13 and 6:14 miles, Tarin Hanson – 7:17 in the girls’ mile, Rusty Day 14:41 in the boys 2-mile, and Cailan Carpenter 16:13 in the girls’ 2-mile.
Our hurdlers earned valuable team points, led by Meadow Adams’ 6th place finish in both the 100 high hurdles, and 300 low hurdles in 19.8 and 57.5. Kyle Martinson placed 4th in the 110 high hurdles in 19.5, while Nate was 6th in the 300 lows in 48.9. Mara MacDonell was just out of the awards with a 60.4 in the 300s, while Mel Stoddard looked good in the 100 highs at 23.8. Mara came back and scored 2 points in the triple jump at 25′ 11″, placing 7th, with Mel two spots back in 20’ 2”. Peter earned more points, placing 6th in 16’ 8” in the long jump, while Kyle and Will had solid triple jumps of 30’ 6” and 27’ 2” respectively.
A couple of our distance runners flexed their muscles in the throws, an unusual combination. Jessica had a big PR, going 30’ 6” and placing 2nd in the girls’ shot put. Meanwhile Levi earned a team point with his 98’ 1” discus throw.
Peter, Ben, Joey and Nate powered our 4×4 boys relay team to an exciting 6th place finish in 3:57. Our boys’ 4×100 team of Noah, Roman, Will and Cy were 8th in 55.1, while Cy, Kyle, Noah, and Roman were 9th in the 4×200.
On the girls’ side, the relay team of Jessica, Meadow, Molly T and Molly Z were a close 7th in the 4×200, Hannah Toftey, Lauren Thompson, Alyssa and Sarah were 8th in the 4×100 at 65.2, while Hannah, Lauren, Klara McNeally and Sarah Larsen were 7th in the 4×400.
In the 13-team field, the girls were 5th with 57 points, while the boys were 7th with 43 points.
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