Both the boys’ and girls’ varsity cross country running teams did well at the Thursday, August 29 cross country meet at Pincushion Mountain trails. The Cook County – Two Harbors girls took the second place team trophy (L-R) Ruby Walsberg, Abigale Seipke, Matea Acero, Melanie Stoddard, Audrey Summers, Maya McHugh, Alyssa Martinson.
The Viking cross country team opened the season Thursday, August 29 on the Pincushion Trails in Grand Marais. A total of 225 runners from Duluth East, Proctor, Carlton, Wrenshall and Lakeview Christian Academy joined the Vikings. Although we have lost team leaders Ben Seaton and Sarissa Falk to graduation, most of the team was back, and we were expecting an even stronger performance this year from our still very young team.
This year’s leaders, seniors Joey Chmelik and Audrey Summers, did not disappoint, leading our boys’ and girls’ varsity teams. After a productive summer of running, Joey improved by almost a minute from last year, earning a top 10 medal by placing 7th in 19:10 in the 5K race.
A trio of Viking sophomores, Sean MacDonell, Pete Summers and Will Seaton, placed 18th – 20th in times of about 21 minutes. Two Harbors runners Owen Cruikshank, Everett Hommes and Drew Christiansen who finished 30th, 32nd and 34th in the 44-runner field with times near 23:30 rounded out the varsity boys. Together, they earned the boys a 3rd place finish behind East and Proctor.
Left: Tongue out and dog tired, Viking boys’ cross country captain Joey Chemlik beat his time from last year by almost a minute and placed 7th in the team’s first race of the season held on the Pincushion Trails. Above: Just an 8th grader, Kiv Hight won the junior high race and set a new record for the 1.6 mile course.
Audrey Summers and eighth-grader Maya McHugh finished 6th and 7th respectively in 16:52 for the 4K race, outstanding times only 8 seconds slower than state contender Sarissa ran last year.
Freshman Alyssa Martinson, who ran especially hard all summer, finished 12th in 17:42. Behind her in 17th was Abi Seipke in 18:28, Matea Acero, recovering from a lingering hip injury, 19th in 19:12, and Ruby Walsberg and first-year runner Mel Stoddard together in 21:22. The girls earned the 2nd place team trophy behind Duluth East, a fitting reward for a group that trained so diligently in the summer.
The Viking boys dominated the junior high race. Newcomer Kiv Hight of Two Harbors won in 9:45 for 1.6K, taking down Kieran Scannell’s team record of 9:56 from 2006. Right behind him was Jake Peron in 9:54. First-year runners Finn Gerry and Will Ramberg had excellent runs of 11:28 and 12:16 respectively, while Jake Bilben and Andy Kern finished strongly in about 15 minutes.
Julia Larsen improved by almost 5 minutes over last year in the girl’s junior high race. A pleasant surprise and a pleasant addition to the team is Austrian exchange student Sophie Honeder who ran 20:25 on the 4K course in the JV race, while Donovan Rigdon showed a lot of promise in his first race, running 18:42 on the same course in the boys’ JV race.
Next up for the team is the huge Eveleth Invite on September 12.
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