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North Branch’s girls track and field team has long been a true team staple at the state meet, but this year, it was nearly the boys’ turn to participate, but they were taken out by Grand Rapids, who had just a bit higher score at the meet in Esko on Tuesday, May 7.

The Thunderhawks won the True Team section with 573 points and North Branch finished in second place with 542 points. Cloquet was third, just seven points behind North Branch.

The Vikings didn’t have any individual wins on the day in the true team meet, but that’s the beauty of it. They had a ton of second and third place finishes and a lot of dpeth, which gave them a fighting shot against Grand Rapids.

Jerome Swan finished second in the 100 meter dash and third in the 200 meter dash for NB.

Matt Stuber and Joe Nihart, state meet competitors from cross country, finished in second and third, respectively, in the 1,600 meter run, and Aiden Bear, another cross country guy, finished in fourth in the 3,200 meter run.

Sophomore Harrison Toussaint came in third in the 110 meter high hurdles and second in the 300 hurdles.

North Branch got top four finishes from their 4x100, 4x200 and 4x400 meter relay teams too, banking even more points for their total.

Rylen Nelson finished fourth in the high jump and Jose Flor came in second in the pole vault.

Dawson Drost got the Vikings some points in the throwing events, finishing third in the shot put and seventh in discus.

Girls
The girls were hoping to get back the state true team meet after a year off, but they were denied when they finished in sixth place.

They didn’t quite get the high finishes that the boys team accomplished. The star of their meet was Paige Bauer. The sophomore racked up points in the field events, finishing third in the high jump, fifth in the pole vault and second in the long jump.

Abby Schulte finished in third place in the shot put, tossing the shot 34’10”.

Cloquet won the girls side of the section meet, with Hibbing and Chisago Lakes rounding out the top three.

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