Top left: David Blackburn (R) battles to the finish line in the 100-meter run. Left: Anna Hay (R) pushes hard to catch the Carlton runner just ahead of her in the 200-meter dash. Above: Sam O’Phelan and Leif Anderson power down the finish line in the 400-meter run at the Esko Invitational track meet.
After dealing with the usual spring cold and rain, the track and field season begins in earnest in May. The large Esko Invitational was sunny and not quite as cold. Seventeen teams split into blue (large schools) and gold (smaller schools), showed up early Saturday morning, and the meet was on. The divisions were scored separately, but ran together. Kind of confusing, but fun never the less.
First up was an event we have never participated in before, a sprint medley relay. Unlike the other four relays, where everyone runs the same distance, the first two runners do 200 meters, the third runner goes 400 meters, and the last runner does 800 meters; a combination of sprinting and distance running. And it was an excellent combination for the Vikings as the girls won and the boys were 2nd, and we were competitive with blue division teams. The girls’ team consisting of Zoe Nonnemacher, Claire LaVigne, and Molly Thomas a Maya McHugh ran 4:45 for the combined mile event, while the boys’ team of Sam O’Phelan, David Blackburn, Leif Anderson, and Will Surbaugh ran 4:16.
Immediately after this relay, we toed the mark for the 4×800 relay, again with great success. Both boys and girls team won. The girls’ team of Malin Anderson, Marin Hay, Chloe Blackburn, and Bryn Soland ran 12:17, while the boys’ team of Sam, doubling back in a distance he had never raced, plus Jack Haussner, Jron Tamanaha, and Andy Kern ran 9:54. Sam had our fastest split of 2:18.
Following those two hectic events, we rolled through our normal events. Claire scored in the 100 meter dash with a 15.0, 7th place finish. Zoe was third in both the 200 and 400, running 30.9 and 68.4 respectively. Daphne Lacina did double duty for the Vikings running the 100 and 300 hurdles, while Saira Smith ran a nice 200, and Bryn placed 6th in the 300 hurdles in 1:06.
Maya continued to race at a high level, placing 2nd in the open 800 with a time of 2:40, a little slower than her split in the relay. Malin placed 5th in a time of 3:03. Marin and Chloe placed 4th and 5th in the mile, running 7:03 and 7:13 respectively. Seventh grader Cecelia Chmelik ran a solid 15:17 in the 2 mile, good for 3rd. Rounding out the girls’ competition, Hailey Smith was 7th in the shot put with a 20’ 4” throw and Lucy Callender was 7th in the discus with a 60’ 9” spin.
In the boys’ competition, Sam ran well again, placing 3rd in the 400 with a time of 57.0. Harvey also scored in the 400 with a 66.8 time, good for 5th. Leif came back with a 2:23 time in the 800, placing 3rd. Will was 2nd in the mile with a 5:20, while Leif completed a tough meet with a 5:30. Not to be outdone, 8th grader Jack Willis ran a very well-paced 13:22 in the 3,200 meter run to take 4th place. Jack scored for the boys with a 50.5 4th place finish in the 300 hurdles, plus jumping 31’ 10” in the triple jump. Finally, our young runners, Kestrel and Stirling Pollock, Tanner DeBoer, Ole Sorenson, and Doran Acero earned us points in the 4×100 and 4×200 relays.
Overall, the Viking girls finished second in the gold division behind Mesabi East, while the boys were fourth out of eight teams. An excellent outing!
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