Top 10 stories of 2011-12 for CL and NB

It’s the cream of the crop. The pick of the litter. The creme de la creme. The best of the best. It’s the top 10 sports stories from Chisago Lakes Area High School and North Branch High School from the 2011-12 season. With the varsity sports season wrapped up for now until the leaves begin to fall and the temperatures begin to drop, it’s time to reflect on the best stories from this season. Last year, the top spot was claimed by the Chisago Lakes girls soccer team and their stunning 1-0 upset over top-ranked Benilde-St. Margaret’s in the first round of the state tournament. One of the biggest stories of the year came off the courts as both Chisago Lakes and North Branch decided to switch conferences for the 2013-14 year.

They’ll be moving to the Mississippi 8 Conference to join western schools. But, I’ll leave this list to stories from on the field. This year, the list is heavy on Chisago Lakes. Many North Branch sports went through some tough stretches this year, but they do pop up in batches. Just like years past, the top 10 list is going to be divided into two different weeks, as we’ll unveil numbers 10 through six this week, and the top five will be in next week’s County Press. Without further ado... 10. Wrestlers and gymnastics at winter state tournaments The winter season was arguably the most successful one of the year for both North Branch and Chisago Lakes, and both wrestling and gymnastics were represented heavily at the state tournament by both Chisago County schools. In wrestling, North Branch sent Pat Mork, who closed out his career with a third consecutive trip to the XCel Energy Center and sophomore Reid Johnson. Both wrestlers ended up losing in the first round of the brackets. In gymnastics, a sport that runs simultaneously with wrestling, freshman Katy Trunk and junior Bayley Ertl of North Branch became the first gymnasts in nearly a quarter century to qualify for the state tourney from NB. Trunk made it in the all-around and Ertl in the vault. For Chisago Lakes, Sam Thomsen, Nicole Bean and Alicia Sokol all earned trips to Minneapolis, again the first time in almost two decades that a girl from CL had gone to the tourney.

Thomsen qualified in the all-around, Sokol on the floor and Bean on the uneven bars. The Chisago Lakes wrestling squad sent seven grapplers and they had some success at the tourney. Stay with the top 10 for their story. 9. Girls swimming sends another six girls to state Two girls placed at the state tournament and another four participated in the festivities as Chisago Lakes just keeps churning out quality swimmers and divers. Junior Sam Thomsen finished in seventh place in the diving event and sophomore Cassie Schlegel participated in the diving meet also, finishing 24th. Junior Thomi Lee, who has appeared on the top 10 list before, finished in fourth place in the 500-yard freestyle, adding another medal to her growing collection. Lee also swam to an 11th place finish in the 100-yard butterfly. But, she still wasn’t quite done. She teamed up with Dani Berg, Araya Gamble and Nicole Bean. The foursome finished in 15th place and dropped nearly 10 seconds off of their personal best time in the last two weeks of the season. 8. Brent Seaton finishes seventh in pole vaulting, other area athletes compete at state tourney Chisago Lakes senior Brent Seaton came out of nowhere this year. Although he was a solid pole vaulter previously, he wasn’t quite in line for a state tournament berth before this year. However, in the beginning of the year, Seaton busted out a jump of 14’6” that instantly put him on the radar for the state tournament. Throughout the rest of the year, Seaton usually coasted to titles by just jumping 13’6” and watching his fellow competitors fall short. However, that wasn’t the case in the state tournament. There was plenty of competition. Seaton cleared his 13’6”, but when he attempted the 14’3” height, he just narrowly missed it and ended up finishing in seventh place in the meet, the highest finish for a Chisago Lakes pole vaulter in a long while. Seaton wasn’t the only one competing from the area. Chisago Lakes also sent Luke McKenzie in the 800, Abbi Forsman, Bekah Meyer, Sarah Greene and Hannah Nordby in the 4x400 meter relay and Forsman in the 1,600 meter run while North Branch sent freshman Maddie Kunshier in the 400 meter run. 7.

Luke McKenzie and Abbi Forsman both earn state tournament trips in multiple sports Speaking of McKenzie and Forsman, they both not only earned a berth at the track and field state tournament, but they also earned spots at the cross country state tournament in the fall. Throughout the fall, McKenzie, who was in his first year of cross country, dominated conference races and topped off the regular season with an individual conference championship. McKenzie just barely missed out on the individual section championship when Mitch Fisher of Andover finished ahead of him, but McKenzie got his revenge, finishing ahead of Fisher in the state tournament at St. Olaf College in Northfield. McKenzie ended up finishing in 19th place overall, earning All-State honors. In the spring, McKenzie qualified for the state tournament in track and field for the second year in a row. Although he was more experienced this time, McKenzie still fell short of the finals in the stacked heat he was in. Forsman earned her way to the cross country state tournament after a tough season getting acclimated to a public school and running with a lead. Forsman, who was home schooled until this year, was normally the top runner at regular season meets, but once she got to the state tournament, things got a bit tougher. She was boxed in by a lot of runners and couldn’t shake the group for a while. Forsman ended up finishing in 39th place with a time of 15:11.

“Abbi had a very good day. The experience she gained at the state tournament is priceless for her senior year," Chisago Lakes’ cross country coach Ken Orwoll said at the time. In track, Forsman earned a berth in two events. She won the section title in the 1,600 meter run and then teamed with Greene, Nordby and Meyer for a berth in the 4x400. In the 1,600 meter, Forsman finished in 13th place overall, battling humid and hot conditions even early in the morning. In the 4x400, Forsman and the other girls finished seventh in their opening heat, failing to qualify for the finals. 6. Boys swimming repeats as NSC champs, sends six to state The boys swimming and diving team won the North Suburban Conference title in 2011 with their first ever victory over private school Benilde-St. Margaret’s. In 2012, Benilde was an even stronger team and the two squads didn’t match up until the end of the season, leaving it to a dramatic showdown. It turned out to be quite anti-climactic when they actually jumped in the pool. With the swimming pool as packed as it had been in years, the Wildcats blasted the Red Knights in the first two events, grabbing a 23-5 lead. With Benilde not having divers, it took five events for Chisago Lakes to build a nearly insurmountable 56-19 lead. Eventually, the ‘Cats began swimming exhibition when they had a 92-44 lead, proving to themselves and to the big private schools in the North Suburban Conference that they were more than a one-year wonder. The win essentially wrapped up CL’s second straight NSC title, as they went unbeaten for the second year in a row.

The Wildcats weren’t done, however. When state tournament time rolled around, the team sent seven guys to the state tournament -- Sam Engel, Avery Turman, Beau Hawkinson, Eric Barnes, Mitch Gebauer, David Lange and James Falkowski. Engel went home with two medals, both seventh place. His first medal event was in the 100 backstroke, where Engel qualified in eighth and jumped up a spot in the finals. As part of the 4x200 medley relay team, Engel matched up with Gebauer, Lange and Falkowski for the seventh place finish. The quartet broke the school record in the state prelims, finishing sixth. In the finals, however, they dropped down a notch and ended up with the seventh place medal. “We weren’t quite as fast as the first day, but to think that this relay did not even qualify last year and now they are All-State, that’s pretty neat,” Head Coach Mark Nordby said at the time. Both Falkowski and Lange qualified individually for the state tournament, too. Lange sneaked into the consolation finals of the 100 butterfly with a 13th place finish and a time of 55.56 seconds, good enough for second all time in Wildcat history. “David was a machine,” Coach Nordby said.

“He had been sick at sections so I was glad he was able to lower his time and really show strong determination,” Nordby said at the time. Falkowski competed in the 100 breaststroke event, but he wasn’t able to qualify for the second day with an historic field around him. There was a mind-boggling 37 participants in the event. “This was the fastest breaststroke field in state history,” Nordby said. “The Class A times were even faster than the Class AA times.” Falkowski finished in 29th place in the prelim, but as a sophomore, he’ll get more cracks at the tourney and at the elusive sub-one minute time.