The Cook County Track team’s first two competitions were in Two Harbors. The Vikings performed well against powerhouse track teams Esko, Two Harbors, Eveleth and Moose Lake. Left: Mara MacDonell gets ready to take flight over the long jump pit at the Two Harbors track meet. In addition to long jumping, Mara also runs a variety of events on the track. Above left: Kyle Martinson sprinted for all he was worth down the runway on his way to long jumping 15 feet 6 inches at the Two Harbors meet. Above right: Melanie Stoddard shows fine form as she gets ready to triple jump at the meet in Two Harbors. Mel jumped 21 feet to place 8th overall.
Spring sports are always a challenge in Northeast Minnesota. You might have sun and 70 degrees in March and snow in late April, like this season. Rain showers are frequent. Spring break interrupts practice just when you are getting into shape, and lots of other academic and extracurricular activities pull kids in many directions. But that is all OK, that is what we want our kids to have—lots of opportunity and variety, and where we want to live—one of the prettiest areas in the U.S. Still, it makes coaching a challenge in the spring, more than any other time of the year.
After a month of good practice but no competition, the team traveled to the beautiful outdoor track facility at Two Harbors High School to compete in the 10-team TH #1 Invite. Led by track powers Esko, Two Harbors, Eveleth and Moose Lake, plus most of the rest of the Polar League, we knew the competition would be extremely tough for our very young team.
Our strengths are our deep distancerunning corps, our top sprinters and our developing hurdlers/jumpers. They didn’t disappoint, as our only senior, state meet participant Molly Zafft, placed 3rd in the 200 in 28.3 and 5th in the 100 in 13.7. We were especially pleased with her performance, as she has only been running for a few weeks due to shoulder surgery this winter.
Matea Acero and Audrey Summers, 6th and 7th in the mile in 6:15 and 6:17 respectively, also led our 4×800 relay to a 4th place finish in 11:55, with good performances from teammates Morgan Weyrens-Welch, who had a 2:55 split, and Tarin Hanson, who ran 3:20.
Mara MacDonell placed 6th in the triple jump at 26’2” and Jessica Berg- Collman was 8th in the shot put at 26’ 7”.
Other noteworthy performances by the girls included Meadow Adams’ 21.2 in the 100 hurdles and 30.2 in the 200 dash, both just outside placing for this first year sprinter; 16.4 in the 100 for 7th grader Alyssa Martinson; 6:44 for Morgan in the mile; 75 seconds for Molly Thomas and 82 seconds for fellow 7th grader Hannah Toftey in the 400; 69 seconds for Mel Stoddard in the 300 hurdles and 63 seconds in the 4×100 relay team of Lauren Thompson, Meadow, Emily Jacobsen and Tarin. The girls ended up in 6th place with 32 points.
The boys’ team has the exact same strengths as the girls, a deep distancerunning group, developing hurdlers and jumpers, and a top sprinter—junior Peter Warren. Peter made it to the section finals in the 100 and 200 dashes last year, and hopes to climb up to the statequalifying top 2 at section this year, a real challenge in the tough, 20+ team section.
He won the 100 at this meet with an 11.8 time, roughly equaling his best from last year. He followed up with a 24.2 in the 200, good for 4th, just off his best. He’ll need to get down around 11.4 and 23.4 to be in the hunt for state—tough but possible.
Joey Chmelik placed 3rd in the 2-mile in 11:46, and Nate Carlson was 8th in 300 hurdles in 48.0.
The other big scorers were the 4×800 relay team of Ben Seaton, Joey, Nate and Levi Axtell who were 2nd in 9:31 and the 4×400 relay team of Peter, Nate, Levi and Ben who were 3rd in 4:01.
Other noteworthy performances included: Cy Fortunato, 13.2 in the 100; Andy Farley, 27.0 in the 200; Kyle Martinson, 15’6” in the long jump; the milers Levi in 5:18, Ben in 5:19 and Rusty Day in 6:34; plus the 4×200 team of Andy, Cy, Roman Schnobrich and Will Lamb that placed 5th in 1:55.2. The boys also ended up in 6th place with 40 points.
Meet No. 2 at Two Harbors
One week later, it was back down to Two Harbors for meet No. 2. Similar 10-team field, with Mesabi East and South Ridge instead of Eveleth and Moose Lake. Peter was a scoring machine for the Viking boys. He was second in the 100 and 200 at 11.7 and 24.1 respectively, 4th in the 400 at 54.5 and 8th in the long jump at 16’7”.
Kyle continued his improvement in the hurdles, placing 7th in the 110 with a 19.7, as did Nate in the 300 hurdles, placing 6th in 48.0.
The boys’ distance corps again flexed their muscles with Ben placing 5th in the 2-mile in 11.51 and providing the leadoff to the 4×800 group of Joey, Nate and Levi that finished 2nd in 9:33. Ben came back and ran a solid 100 in 12.9 (shocking for a true distance runner), just behind Andy’s 12.7. The final scorer for the boys was the 4×100 team of Andy, Roman, Will and Cy that placed 6th in 55.2.
Other strong performances for the boys included Roman’s 2:46 in the 800- meter run, and Will, Jack Viren and Rusty’s 6:24, 6:31 and 6:36 in the mile. The boys again finished 6th in the team standings with 42 points.
Molly paced the girls with solid improvements in the dashes, placing 2nd in the 100 in 13.3 and 3rd in the 200 in 27.9.
The distance running segment piled up points in the 2-mile, with Audrey taking 5th in 14.01, with Matea a step back in 6th followed by Morgan, 7th in 14:17. A huge surprise was sprinter/ thrower/log roller Jessica staying close to Morgan with a 14:27. Coaches had to eat their words on that one (she just wanted to try it). The foursome combined to take 5th in the 4×800.
Meadow led the hurdlers, placing 8th in the 100 high hurdles and just missing scoring in the 300 low hurdles. Mara and Mel completed the individual scoring, placing 7th and 8th in the triple jump at 25’10” and 21’0” respectively.
The 4×200 relay team of Jessica, Alyssa, Matea and Molly, plus the 4×100 team of Hannah, Sarah T., Sarah Larsen and Klara McNeally in the 4×100 both earned 8th place finishes.
Other standout performances included Mara’s 3:06 leg for the B-team in the 4×800, Emma Nalezny’s 16.6 in the 100, Tarin’s 7:11 in the mile, Michaela Peterson’s gutsy performance in the mile, and Emily’s 1:19 in the 400. The girls also finished 6th in the team scoring with 32 points.
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