The Cook County Track team had a great time at their second outdoor meet of the season in Two Harbors on Tuesday, May 3. Eighth-grader Alex Smith passes the baton to Sophomore Bjorn Johnson. With teammates Cy Fortunato and Nate Carlson, the young sprinters finished 4th in the 4×200 at 1:59.9.
Coach Chris Hegg
The bus to Two Harbors for the second outdoor meet of the season was crowded—46 kids, along with Coach April Wahlstrom and me. The presence of Esko and Two Harbors, two of the top teams in the Section, meant the competition would be tough. With only a couple kids missing injured or sick, we were looking forward to having competitive athletes in every event.
We weren’t disappointed, as we scored points in every event except the throws, where our young throwers are still developing, and the triple jump, high jump and pole vault, where a lack of facilities keeps us from developing the skills. Both the boys’ and the girls’ teams ended up 4th, and we had exciting races going on all afternoon.
Larson’s dramatic duel with State cross country champ
Ailee Larson had an exciting race, finishing just 2 tenths of a seconds behind the defending state cross-country champion Marissa Shady of Esko.
None was more exciting than Ailee Larson’s duel with defending state cross county champion Marissa Shady of Esko. Ailee wasn’t too happy when I moved her up for the first mile race of her career, after a steady diet of ½ and ¼ mile races. We knew she would draw one of Esko’s many top distance runners, and weren’t let down when she got the best. The plan was simple; hang close but stay within yourself. Marissa stormed out at the start, steadily opening up a 30-yard lead on Ailee in the first 2 laps.
Starting the 3rd of 4 laps, Ailee stopped losing ground, and made up about half of the deficit on lap 3. Then, like a heatseeking missile, she started to acquire her target, catching her coming into the last straight away. She started her move immediately, opening up a small lead. Marissa responded however, and edged Ailee 5:25.0 to 5:25.2. Not only were these the best times in the area this year, they would have been top 10 at state last year. Coming off her defeat of the defending state 800 champion last week, Ailee is clearly on a roll.
Top 8 performances
We had a lot of other individual top 8 scoring performances. Sophomore Peter Warren set PR’s (personal records) winning the 200 dash in 24.0 and placing 3rd in the 100 at 11.8.
Kieran Scannell, working on speed at this meet, easily won the 800 in a PR 2:06.8.
Junior Molly Zafft showed long sprint strength by placing 2nd in the 400 at 65.7, while Kara Ramey was four places back in 75.5.
Eighth-grader Daniel Ahrendt and 7th grader Matea Acero weren’t too happy about running their first 2 mile races, but both had steady 4th place finishes in 12:22 and 13:40.
Our hurdlers continued their improvement under Coach April’s tutelage. Kyle Martinson was 5th in the 110 high hurdles, Rachel Todd was 8th in the 100s, and Mara MacDonell was 8th in the 300 lows. Amber Todd led our long jumpers, placing 6th in 13’ 5”, while Mara was two places back in 12’ 9”.
Shelby Ahrendt continued her steady improvement with a 4th place 2:47 in the 800.
Joey Chmelik led our milers with a PR 5th place 5:29, with 7th grader Will Seaton continuing his improvement with a fine 6:15.
Audrey Summers led the girls placing 8th for the girls in 6:35, just ahead of Cheyenne Sorlie’s 6:36.
Young discus throwers Levi Axtell and Abby Sutton just missed placing with 89’ 8” and 70’ 5” throws respectively.
All of our relay teams scored important points for us. Our girls’ teams had two 2nd place finishes and two 3rds. Ailee, Molly, Kara and Shelby were 2nd in the 4×400 in 4:34. Amber, Rachel, Ava McMillan, and Molly were 2nd in the 4×200 at 2:00.4. Shelby, Audrey, Matea and Ailee were 3rd in the 4×800 at 11:09, while Jessica Collman anchored Amber, Rachel and Ava to 3rd in the 4×100 at 58.0.
We also fielded three “B” teams. Elizabeth O’Phelan led the girls’ 4×100 team including Lauren Thompson, Mel Stoddard and Linden Sutton to a 1:10 in the 4×100. Adrianna Berglund, Lily Gruber-Shultz, Emma and Elizabeth were just behind the “A” teams in the 4×200 at 2:22. Emma, Cheyenne, Audrey and Lily ran a fine 5:31 in the 4×400.
Our boys had a 2nd and three 4th place relay finishes. Kieran, Levi, Daniel and Nate Carlson placed 2nd in the 4×800 in 9:34. Kieran and Peter ran quick 56 second 400s leading our 4×400 team to a 4:05.0 with Levi and Nate. Young sprinters Cy Fortunato, Nate, Bjorn Johnson and Alex Smith were 4th in the 4×200 at 1:59.9, while Kyle, Cy, Alex and Roman Schnobrich were 4th in the 4×100.
Next up for the Viking track team is the Barnum Sap Run Thursday, May 12 and the Junior High championships at Two Harbors Friday, May 13.
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