---

North Suburban Conference Championships - Boys

As the North Suburban Conference has evolved over the last few years, North Branch, once consistently atop the standings, has struggled to keep up with the like of Irondale, Spring Lake Park and St. Francis.

Although the 2009 incarnation of the Vikings had similar results against those bigger schools, the underclassmen that came through for the Vikings will hope to shine for the next few years.

Only two seniors scored points for the Vikings, who finished seventh out of 11 teams in the conference championships. The rest came from underclassmen.

Zach Good was the first senior to score points for the Vikings, leaping 5'10" in the high jump for fifth place.

The finish earned the Vikings four points in the team standings.

The only other senior who had a hand -- well, legs -- in the scoring was Boyd Suparat. He ran the second leg in the 4x400 meter relay team, which finished in fourth place to earn five points. The other three competitors on the quartet of runners were Anthony Ceroll, Joe Klun and Ken Broden.

North Branch's highest finishes came from a pair of juniors. John Morrison, who had faltered in his best event, the shot put, made up for it with a phenomenal toss of 147'5" in the discus. The length earned him a second place finish in the event and eight points for the Vikings. Junior Bryce Hutchings had a good throw in the shot put event, however, and earned seventh place honors in the conference for two Viking points.

The other second place finish was by Klun in the triple jump. His three jumps totaled 41'6". He was a mere five inches away from Jordan Halverson of Fridley for a first place finish.

Sophomore Zack Smith added to the Vikings' point total with a fourth place finish in the pole vault event. He aired up to 12 feet before hitting his plateau.

Sophomore Colin Charpentier and Broden tallied the last of the points for the Vikings varsity squad. Charpentier finished in seventh place in the 1,600 meter run with a time of 4:45.22. Broden finished in fifth place in the 400 meter dash, earning four points for the Vikings with a time of 52.56 seconds.

Morrison, Klun and Smith did enough to earn All-NSC honors on the day, and Broden, Ceroll, Charpentier, Hutchings, Good and Carl Neuman earned All-Conference Honorable Mention.

The Vikings finished in seventh place in the conference meet with 42 points. The top of the meet came down to the last race, and Fridley pulled out a win. The Tigers scored 119 points to win, and Robbinsdale Cooper finished a fraction behind with 118.5 points. Irondale rounded out the top three with a score of 107.

Girls

The girls had a better experience going through the perils of the NSC. The depth in their running events is better than the boys, and they have some top performers in select field events.

Bradi Herdina kicked the day off with two high finishes for the Vikings. The Junior finished in sixth place in the 100 meter dash to earn three points for the Vikes. She followed that up with a 27.65 second run in the 200-meter dash. The time was good enough for fourth place and five points for North Branch.

Maria Gozzi and Shayna Gray carried the momentum in the next two sprint events. Gozzi earned a fourth place finish in the 400 meter dash and Gray finished in fifth place in the 800 meter run.

The Zimmerman sisters along with Alyssa Kroschel earned the Vikings some big points in the distance events, also. Ali Zimmerman finished in eighth place in the 1,600 meter run, and also in third place in the 3,200 meter run. Kroschel notched a fourth place finish in the 3,200 meter, and Megan Zimmerman finished in eighth in the same race.

Hurdler Catie Bettendorf kept the Vikings on their early roll with a few high finishes in the tough hurdling events. She finished fourth in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 16.73 seconds, and followed that up with a time of 48.43 seconds in the 300 meter hurdles.

A few of the relay teams also performed well for the Vikings. The team of Sadie Kolke, Gray, Bettendorf and Gozzi finished in third place in the 4x400 meter relay event with a time of 4:12.82.

Briana Berthiaume, Haley Hasleiet, Kolke and Gray teamed up for a fourth place finish in the 4x800 meter relay, earning five points for the Vikes.

The downfall for North Branch was their performance in the field events. The Vikings were shut out in the shot put, discus, long jump, triple jump and high jump. Their lone points in the field events were matching 9' jumps by Kassie Salo and Sydney Swanson in the pole vault event. The two combined to earn seven points with their equal finishes.

North Branch cracked the top five in the team standings with an overall score of 66 points. They weren't far off of Irondale, who finished in third place with 79 points, or St. Louis Park, who came in fourth place with 72 points.

Spring Lake Park and St. Francis ran away with the conference meet, with SLP earning the championship with 126 points and the Saints coming in second with 104.5 points.

All-NSC honors went out to Herdina in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes, Gozzi in the 400 meter dash, Ali Zimmerman and Kroschel in the 3,200 meter run, Bettendorf in the 100 and 300 meter hurdles and Swanson in the pole vault.

Gray and Kolke both earned All-NSC Honorable Mention for their performances in the 800 meter run. Those two, along with Bettendorf and Gozzi also earned Honorable Mention in the 4x400 meter relay event. Salo earned the honor in pole vaulting, Onalee Yousey earned honorable mention in the 100 meter hurdles, and Ali Zimmerman in the 1,600 meter run, as well as Megan Zimmerman in 3,200 meter run earned Conference Honorable Mention.

"We had some very good results and some very big season personal record," Head Coach Brian Hasleiet noted. "This is one of those meets that we'd like to see our people step up and perform better than they had the rest of the season, and it was great to see a number of our athletes do that for us in a big meet."

The Vikings will kick off sectionals on Wednesday, May 27 at 11 a.m. at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Hasleiet is hoping for even more personal best there, and hopes to send a gang of red-and-white tracksters to the state meet at Hamline University.

Wildcat boys struggle in the stacked conference, girls break individual records en route to eighth

BY CHUCK FITZER

North Suburban Conference Championships

Junior Chelsea Johnson broke one school record on her own and was part of the record-breaking 4x800 meter relay team as the Wildcat girls track team finished eighth out of eleven teams at last week's conference championships, held Tuesday May 12 and Thursday, May 14 at North Branch. The boys finished in eleventh place.

GIRLS

Johnson came in second in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:23.79, breaking the old mark of 2:24.27 set by Ariel Perkins in 2001. And Johnson and her teammates - freshman Mary Cross, eighth grader Kaylee Ryan and freshman Kelsey Sorensen - finished second in the 4x800 meter relay with a school-record breaking time of 10:07.21. When she was a freshman, Johnson was also part of the team that held the previous record in the 4x800. In 2007, Johnson, Danielle Vitali, Andrea Brelje and Kristin Tengwall set the old record with a time of 10:08.90. "All four of the relay runners had a good year," said Wildcat head coach Ken Orwoll. "We were seeded fourth in the 4x800 and each girl ran an outstanding leg. When Chelsea got the handoff for the final leg, we were in third place, pretty close to second. We knew that Chelsea would be able to handle it and she came through. It was a lot of fun."

Senior Sam Genung had the only first place finish for the Wildcats on the day, winning the long jump with a leap of 16'6.50". "Things have been going real well for Sam" said Orwoll. "She had a very good competition. She started well and maintained. Senior Lindsey Fowler-Wacholz finished second in the triple jump at 33'6". "Lindsey performs well for us on a consistent basis," said Orwoll. "It's nice to have those kinds of athletes on your team."

All-Conference honors are handed out to individual performers who place in the top four of an event or relay teams that finish in the top 2. All-Conference Honorable Mention awards are given to fifth through eight place individual performers and third and fourth place relay teams. All of the athletes mentioned above - Johnson, Cross, Ryan, Sorenson, Genung and Wacholz - were All-Conference.

Sophomore Lauren Althaus just missed All-Conference in the 200 meter run, finishing fifth in the 200 meter dash in a photo finish. "It's great to have Lauren back to run the 200," said Orwoll. "She's fun to watch." In addition to Althaus, other All-Conference Honorable Mention performers included Cross, 6th in the 3200 meter run (also a personal best); senior Makayla Grote, 6th in the 400 meter dash (personal best); and junior Kristina Miller, 6th in the discus.

BOYS

The boys had just one All-Conference performer at the conference meet. Senior Brad Reiniccius finished fourth in the high jump with a height of 5'10". "It was really nice to see Brad earn All-Conference honors in the high jump," said Orwoll.

They also had six All-Conference Honorable Mention performers: senior Craig Close, fifth in the triple jump (personal best); sophomore Alex Vitalis, sixth in the pole vault (best this year); junior Dom Novak, eighth in the 200 meter dash (personal best); senior Eric Helps, eighth in the discus (personal best); junior Brad Johnson, eighth in the 300 meter hurdles (personal best); and junior Riley Myers, eighth place tie in the high jump.

No Wildcat runners placed in the top eight in the 1600 meter run. But the performances of three young runners gave some hope for the future as sophomore Josh Olinger, freshman Luke McKenzie and freshman Peter Tengwall all had personal best times in the race.

"Overall, this was a good meet for both the boys and girls," said Orwoll. "A good number of kids received conference honors. There really weren't too many places e could have picked up more points. I'm happy with our overall performance and effort.

UPCOMING

The Wildcats will compete at the North Branch Invitational today starting at 4 p.m. The North Branch meet is their last tune-up before next week's Section 7AA meet at the University of Minnesota Duluth track. The festivities will start Wednesday, May 27 at 11 a.m. and continue Saturday, May 30, also at 11 a.m.

---