Pincushion Mountain was the site of the Vikings boys and girls first cross country meet of the season. Seven teams from the Northland came to compete against the Viking harriers, with Duluth East and its 90 runners dominating the team events. Individually, however, the Vikings shined with Kieran Scannell (on the right with teammate David Bergstrom right behind him) winning the overall title and Ailee Larson finishing second in the girl’s varsity race.
After only a couple weeks of practice, we were looking forward to the first race of the season at our home course on the Pincushion trails. The Viking Challenge has always been a tough meet, as Class AA Duluth East and Hibbing come each year, along with four Class A schools, Proctor, Carlton, Albrook and Wrenshall. East coach Dave Wicker convinced Duluth Central (recently combined with Duluth Denfeld) to make the trip up the shore, adding another tough AA team. We were anxious to see how our rebuilding of the girls’ state meet team, which lost six of its top nine runners, was going, and how our young but talented boys’ team would fare.
Senior Ailee Larson led the Viking girls, toeing the starting line with former section 7A champion Lindsay Dahl- Holm of Carlton, state meet AA runner Diana Hanka of Central, and the massive East team that placed 13 girls in the top 29. Carolyn Lucca of East took the race out hard, with a lead pack of five including Ailee. After the second loop, Lindsay had fallen off the pace while Carolyn had opened a big lead. Ailee closed the gap and out-sprinted the two Central runners, finishing second and recording 16:05 for the 2.5 miles, a minute faster than she ran last season. Splitting the big East group, senior Anna Schield was the next Viking, placing 12th in a fine 17:27. Shelby Ahrendt, the third member of last years’ state team, had an outstanding race, running 18:01 for 21st. Thefinal three Vikings in the varsity race, Sara Schield, Audrey Summers and Sarissa Falk, started conservatively in their first varsity race but ran a very steady pace, finishing in 20:04, 20:26 and 21:01 respectively. The girls finished fourth, behind the AA teams but in front of the A teams. We have a long way to go to return to state, but this was a decent start.
Senior Ailee Larson outsprinted two Duluth Central runners to finish second overall in the Pincushion meet. Larson ran one minute faster than last year, closing with a time of 16:05 for the 2.5 course. Kieran Scannell ran away from the boy’s varsity field last week at the Pincushion cross-country meet. Scannell, just a sophomore, won with a time of 17: 17 over the very tough 5-kilometer course.
Kieran Scannell, section 7A cross country and track two-mile champion as a freshman last year, had similarly tough competition in AA state runners Matt Kero of Central and Ryan Davis of East. Tommy Rossiter of Proctor took the pace out hard, with a five-person lead pack including Kieran. After the first two of four loops, Kieran had taken the lead, dropping two of the five, with the top AA guys right behind. After the third loop, Kieran had opened a 15-second lead that he extended to 22 at the line, winning in 17:17.
This was easily a course record for the Viking Challenge Meet, and only three seconds behind the course record for the Pincushion course set in last October’s Polar League meet by all-state runner Jackson Lindquist of Esko. Great start to the season!
Meanwhile, junior David Bergstrom followed closely by senior teammate Josh Ensign pushed to course PRs of 18:52 and 19:00 respectively, to finish 10th and 11th. Sophomore Ben Seaton ran a similarly strong race, finishing 23rd in 20:16. Darren Waha, running faster after a trip “DownUnder,” an invitational program to give upcoming seniors an opportunity to compete in Australia and Hawaii during the summer, led our next group, including eighth-grader Daniel Ahrendt and freshman Drew Christiansen, as they ran 20:53, 21:07 and 21:13 respectively for the 3.1 mile course. Joey Chmelik, 21:39 and Alex Ditmanson 23:47 rounded out our varsity squad. The boys ended up third with 67 points, behind only Central with 42 and East with 48. All the summer work is paying off for our young, deep boys team.
In the junior varsity races, Katrina Axtell led the girls, running 21:54 for the same 2.5-mile course as the varsity girls ran. That was a career best for the hard working senior. Kara Ramey was next in 22:32, Amber Todd in 22:45, and newcomer Bailey Morrison a solid 24:02 first time race. Daniel Ditmanson ran the 2.5-mile course in 18:44, while Seb Schnobrich had a fine run of 19:43.
Matea Acero was our lone competitor in the girls’ junior high race, but she made the most of it by earning a ninth place medal with a fine 11:49 time for the 1.6 miles. Our junior high boys placed third in the boys’ competition, led by Pete Summers’ 10th place finish in 11:02. Owen Cruikshank and Will Seaton were close behind, running 11:46 and 11:47 respectively for 14th and 15th. Fletcher Kasell, 13:06 in 21st and Roman Schnobrich, 22nd in 13:14, completed our team.
After an open week during the first week of school, the Vikings will head to Eveleth for the big Golden Bear Invitational on September 16.
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