Photos by Karen Lehto The Cook County Viking cross-country running team had a great day at Pincushion Mountain on Wednesday, October 14, finishing second a close second behind rival Esko. Above: Cook County Viking girls’ varsity had another great showing, with several personal best races. (L-R) Sonia Peterson, Michelle Weitz, Shelby Ahrendt, Anna Schield, Mercedes Leininger, Signe Larson. (Not pictured – Ailee Larson).
Of course we were bummed. If you have been following Viking cross country, you know that our girls’ team has been battling Esko the last couple of years for Polar League and Section 7A honors – with the ultimate goal of qualifying the girls’ team for the state meet. Last year, we surprised them to win the Polar League meet, only to finish a close fourth at the Section 7A meet. Like last year, they rarely run their entire team at area invitational meets. Two of their top girls play soccer, while one plays volleyball. The girls often have scheduling conflicts, resulting in their missing many less-important meets. They were all here last Wednesday, including a new recruit from soccer. (Nothing wrong with that, just a surprise). Of course, we don’t want to forget Cromwell/ Floodwood, Carlton, Moose Lake/WR/ Barnum, McGregor and Wrenshall, but this was definitely a two-team race. We don’t want to forget the boys’ varsity and the JV and junior high races. But the big deal was the girls’ varsity races where, arguably, the two top teams and a half dozen of the top individual runners in the section would square off for the League Championships.
Left: Drew Holmen finished sixth in the boys’ varsity race in 19:09, clinching all-conference honors, along with David Bergstrom who finished fifth.
There was a great turnout of fans, family and classmates at the Pincushion trails. The weather was cool, overcast and threatening for the meet, but rain/snow held off until the awards ceremony. The girls run three loops at Pincushion, each one offering good viewing opportunities, with big hills on the course.
At the start, many-timestate meet competitors Sarah Chasson of Floodwood and Lindsey Dahl-Holm of Carlton set the pace with the Vikings’ Signe Larson, Ailee Larson and Sonja Peterson close behind, mixed with a big group of Esko girls and a lone girl from McGregor. Coming around after the first loop, Ailee had fallen back and was limping – not a good sign. Signe had split the two leaders, while Esko remained clumped in the chase pack. After the second loop, Ailee had recovered some, while the rest of the leaders were pretty much the same. Signe looked like she might catch the leader, while Anna Schield was starting to move up to the chase group. At the finish, Signe was second in 15:40. Esko had placed four girls in between fourth and eighth. Ailee was ninth in 16:25; Sonja was right behind in 16:25 (top ten are all conference); Anna 11th in 16:54; Mercedes Leininger 13th in 17:08; Shelby Ahrendt 17th in 17:51; and Michelle Weitz 18th in 18:10.
Unfortunately Esko’s fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth and 12th had beaten us, 28 to 36. At first, we were pretty let down. But upon closer look, we had a very good race – Esko just had a better one. Signe set a personal best by 23 seconds. Anna, Mercedes, and Shelby had personal bests. Sonja tied hers and Michelle and Ailee were within 15 seconds of theirs. Not too shabby. Can we beat Esko? We still think so. Small improvements for a couple of girls would do it. Of course, the top two teams at section go to state, but we think it is better to focus on running your best race and winning, let someone else think about second.
The boys’ varsity race was just as exciting, but our team chances against many time champ Esko, also a state meet qualifier last year, were not nearly as good. At the gun, defending Polar League champ Raleigh Goessling of Esko took off with the two top young runners in the section, Esko sophomore Jackson Lindquist of Esko and freshman Kieran Scannell of Cook County. A way back, the chase pack formed, full of Esko runners, along with David Bergstrom and Drew Holmen of CCHS. After the second lap, Raleigh had fallen slightly off, while Kieran hung on to Jackson, something he practiced a lot in track last spring. David and Drew moved slowly up in the chase group, while the rest of the Vikings ran steady in the main group.
Starting the last loop, Kieran was struggling a little, while Raleigh was closing and Jackson was clear. After cheering everyone else on, we headed over to the finish.
Jackson was first, setting a new course record of 17:14. Thenext came out of the woods together. Kieran put on a great finishing kick to claim second in 17:32, the fourth best time ever recorded on the course. Drew and David moved steadily up, finishing fifth and sixth in 19:04 and 19:09 respectively, easily clinching all-conference honors. Josh Ensign was next in 19:41, just missing all conference in 11th. Leif Gilsvik closed strongly for 13th in 20:09, while freshman Ben Seaton continued his improvement, finishing 16th in 20:50, and Darren Waha ran a solid 21:13 for 24th. Theboys finished closer to Esko than we thought, losing 23-37. The other teams were all around 100 points – low score wins.
In the JV boys’ race, Esko won the team title, while Alex Ditmanson medaled with a fourth place finish in 22:52. Daniel Ditmanson just missed a top five medal, placing sixth in 23:17, while Sebastian Schnobrich continued his steady improvement, placing 12th in 26:18.
In girls’ JV, the Vikings won the title by claiming six of the top seven places. Amber
Fletcher won in 18:38, a quality girls’ varsity time. Amber Todd had her best race, running 20:30 for second. Mara MacDonell was fourth in 22:06, while Katrina Axtell was fifth in 22:18, Sarah O’Phelan was sixth in 25:00 and Cheyenne Sorlie was seventh in 25:51, eight minutes faster than she ran the same course in August.
The Vikings also dominated both junior high races. Joey Chmelik was our top boys’ finisher, running 10:35 on the very tough 1.6- mile course for fifth. Daniel Ahrendt was right behind in 10:56. Joe Rauzi was eighth in 11:42, Luke Fenwick ninth in 11:48, Ben Resek 12th in 11:59, Sean MacDonell 14th in 12:58, Roman Schnobrich 16th in 13:20 and Will Seaton 17th in 13:41.
Rose Ingebrigtsen led our young girls, finishing fifth in 12:20. Audrey Summers was right behind in 12:26, just holding off Kara Ramey by a second. CC Schnobrich was close behind in 12:51, while Thai exchange student Nuchada Srisittipoj returned after missing two+ weeks with a sore foot to run the entire course (without walking) in 16:04. I don’t think she will ever get used to our weather, though, as Thailand is pretty tropical.
Next up for the Vikings is the season finale for the JV/ JH racers at Proctor, which will serve as a tapering race for varsity, i.e., not everyone will run, if we think they need more recovery rest rather than another race. Then on Thursday, October 29th, it is down to Cloquet for the Section 7A championship. Races start at 11:00 a.m. Look forward to seeing some of you down there!
Come cheer
our Vikes!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
11:00 ·
Away
vs. Cloquet
Section 7A Championships
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